


Flying High

by gamerprincess13



Series: Flying High [1]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Human, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-11-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 23:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7821202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gamerprincess13/pseuds/gamerprincess13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A long time ago, one man with an army of slaves attempted to destroy the entire world but was stopped by five heroes. However, the five heroes were never seen again.</p><p>200 years later, a small group of criminals are attempting to repeat history slowly, but surely in their own way, with mysterious dark magic. And somehow, Angelo 'Jet' Hawkins is getting himself involved with foiling their plans just because he's holding an important object that'll prevent their goal: one of the seven Chaos Emeralds.</p><p>...Or to be more precise, a Chaos Emerald holding the spirit of one of the five heroes from... the... past... What?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Too Many Surprises!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there, everyone! It's me, Gamerprincess13! Like I've stated on my tumblr, this fanfic will replace both Escape From the City and Disturbia (both of them are deleted). This is also a multi-series fic, which is one reason why I wanted to put it in here rather than fanfiction.net.
> 
> Also, since this is a Human AU, hair colors for the majority of characters are normal colors (black, brunette, blonde, red-head, etc.) compared to their counterparts, and I'll post the characters with their looks at my tumblr page, so look out for them.

_Earth. The only planet full of life; plants, vast oceans, animals, humans. This planet from the very beginning kept on changing as time passed by. With each passing time, new discoveries were made, civilizations formed where people lived and prospered, and new inventions that made people's lives easier advanced, along with the early technology. And in time, the Earth was at peace._

_But that peace didn't last forever. There's always something attempting to break that peace for good. War, an incredible force of nature, or an evil individual of unspeakable power._

_The last one tried to not only destroy peace from this world, but the entire planet itself, along with other planets in the Solar System. No one knows why this individual wanted to destroy the whole galaxy, but all researchers agreed that this individual had power levels not even God can measure up to._

_No one dared to face the powerful individual, fearing they would lose their lives. But those who are willing to risk their lives ended up with a fate worse than death; hell, death would be a pleasant thing more than what the individual, a single man, did to his poor victims. When his victim is defeated, he would force them into becoming his slaves that will obey his every word until he is defeated for good. But considering that he ended up destroying military fortresses and tanks without any effort, killing this god-like villain is impossible._

_Armies around the world attempted to take down the villain, but to no avail. No scratches were made to him and whatever powerful missile/bomb was suppose to take him down, he retaliates with a chuckle before he unleashes a large, dark ball of energy, destroying any object it touches, and heavily injuring any person (or animal). If he finds any lucky survivors that endured the blast, he'll turn them into his slaves without any question._

_For years, with his personal army at his disposal and powers that are a force to be reckoned with, any place that he goes is going to be doomed. Buildings and roads torn apart, innocent lives taken away, families divided, and any surviving citizen is guaranteed to either be a slave to this vile man or be forced to run away; never returning home._

_Yet one day, what everyone in the world thought was impossible became possible. A young man, along with four others, stood up to this man's army. But the five weren't ordinary people, oh no. They had special powers just like that man, but the difference is that they use them for good instead of abusing them for selfish reasons._

_Their powers included the traits people desired for their lives: including super strength, flight, invisibility, and control over nature. The young man leading the four people had an incredible power: super speed. He can easily go into mach 5 without any effort and create sonic booms in front of everyone's eyes, along with having partial control over the wind._

_The battle between the five and the god-like man and his army was a struggle. One minute, the man thought he had overpowered the five-man army. Yet at the last second, the five managed to get the upper hand thanks to seven artifacts called the Chaos Emeralds. These seven jewels granted the five warriors enough power to defeat the man for good, along with freeing those who were under his control for years._

_But this comes at a heavy price. Not too long after the five defeated the evil man that almost destroyed the entire world, the five warriors vanished from existence, never to be seen from anyone ever again._

_Yet despite their disappearances, their tale hasn't been forgotten by others. And with each century that has passed…_

* * *

 

“...Rumor has it that those five warriors didn't die entirely, but are out there somewhere, still alive in this world; in case the god-like man shows up again.”

Scanning the last sentence on the torn up page of the book titled “Legends from Old Times”, Jet slammed the book closed before dropping the hard-covered book onto his black and white rug before pulling out his phone from his front pockets of his dark jeans.

“Like that will ever happen,” Jet mumbled to himself as he read the screen from his phone. Let's see here. The time reads 12:30 P.M, the temperature outside is 94 degrees Fahrenheit (or 34.4 degrees Celsius) just like any summer day in Metal City in the middle of July, and there's a reminder that Jet has 7 missed text messages from Wave-

Wait… Seven missed messages?! How in the hell did he managed to miss all of them anyway?

Frantically entering the password to his phone, Jet checked the message section to see all of the seven messages that Wave has sent out.

_**Wave/Winona: Short-head, meet me at HappyTea at 12:00. 'Kay?** _

_**There's something I want to talk to you about. It's important.** _

_**And you better hurry up. I don't want Storm listening on us since his shift starts in about 10 mins.** _

_**I'm here and you're nowhere to be seen. What happened?** _

_**12:20 and I've ordered our drinks while waiting for you... Yes, I ordered your mango bubble tea...** _

_**I swear... Where the hell are you?** _

_**Alright... You have until 12:35 to get here or I'll drag your lazy ass out of your house!** _

Upon reading all of them, Jet frantically texted a reply explaining his situation. It's not his fault some immature jerk decided to screw with him every ten minutes that he decided to put his phone on silent mode for the rest of the day. He could have turned off his phone, but there's a chance he may need it later today. Like now!

“Oh, crap. She's going to murder me!” Jet exclaimed as he jumped out of his bed, slipping on his red shoes and putting on his green and blue short-sleeved plaid shirt (unbuttoned) over his white sleeveless shirt before dashing out of his room and grabbing his green Extreme Gear from the front door.

Before he can open the door, his younger brother, Bean, spotted Jet in the front door as he's getting a can of mango juice out of the fridge. So much for getting out without being caught by any of his family members.

“ _Kuya_ , where are you going?” Bean asked Jet, opening the orange can.

“To HappyTea before Wave literally gets here with a temper,” Jet replied, already opening the front door. “If mom and dad asks where I am...”

“You're at HappyTea with your girlfriend!” Bean finished his brother's sentence, adding the one word Jet despised when associated with his best friend of twelve years.

“I was going to get you something, but forget it,” Jet said as he left the house before hearing his fourteen-year-old brother moaning “Aw, come on!”

Jet hopped onto his board, going faster than he normally would to arrive at the most popular tea shop at Metal City; avoiding people who were just minding their own business (or not as some were distracted with their phones), along with objects such as a large oak tree and a hovering postal box currently delivering mails or packages to homes.

Normally, a postal box hovering and automatically delivering mail to homes might sound strange, but to citizens in Metal City, it's actually standard. In fact, Metal City is the most advanced city in the United States. Sure, technology in the U.S has improved dramatically compared to 200 years ago, yet Metal City puts other cities in the country in shame. Examples include, well, the hovering postal box, trucks such as a street cleaning and garbage truck are moving without any drivers, computers having a battery that can last up to two hundred hours (about eight days) without being charged, and every building is installed with a security system that identifies all family members (along with close friends with each member) in order to keep dangerous people from the house, along with tracking down anything that's deemed troublesome.

Jet is pretty lucky that he grew up in Metal City. Yes, he's aware that there's crime going on, but for the most part, this city is a safe place due to the security in his home, along with outside since there's at least one police officer patrolling a corner of Metal City; ready to shut down any criminal activities that might be going on behind their back.

Still, Jet might not be safe from Wave's wrath if he doesn't get arrive at HappyTea in about two minutes!

 _Oh, gods. Oh, gods. OH, GODS! I better make it!_ Jet screamed in his thoughts as he barely beats the pedestrian traffic light on time, almost hitting zero, zooming past by people were crossing the road.

* * *

 

~Meanwhile at HappyTea~

 

Their orders already set on the white table, Wave is currently looking at her phone to see the latest message that Jet sent her, explaining why he's more than a half-hour late. She quietly laughed to herself that Jet set his phone on silent mode the entire time due to something stupid that happened to him all afternoon.

 _Jeez. We're living in the most advanced city in the world, but we still get prank calls. Lovely,_ Wave thought to herself as she sent a response to Jet's message while drinking her berry iced tea.

_**Angelo/Jet: Sorry! I set my phone on silent since some bastard kept prank calling me all day!** _

_**Wave: Fine. Show me the number of that prank caller and I'll deal with him/her later.** _

As she sent the message, she looked at the time, seeing that Jet has less than a minute before she leaves and go to his-

“OH MY GODS, WAVE! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! I'M HERE!” Jet shouted as he ran through the automatic doors and sat where his brunette haired friend is, along with his orange-yellow tea with tapioca pearls at the bottom.

Never mind. He got here on time.

“Looks like you took your sweet time, short-head,” Wave said, using Jet's nickname he despised so much since he's the shortest out of his friends, standing at a 5'7 compared to Wave's 5'11 and Storm's massive 6'4.

“Whatever, Winnie,” Jet retaliated, using Wave's disliked nickname that came from her first name: Winona.

“Normally, I'd flick something at your face, but I'm not in the mood.”

“Lucky me.” Jet smiled as he took a sip of his bubble tea. “So, what do you want to talk to me about that you don't want Storm to know.”

Wave set her iced tea on the white table as she started her sentence, “It's about tomorrow.”

“What about it? You know we're going to my cousin's birthday party at Black and White Plaza tomorrow.”

Black and White Plaza is a popular pizza place that doubles as an arcade, and is known to host the best parties any one has known, whether someone is five or even in their sixties. It caters to any parties, ranging from the typical birthday parties, family or school reunions, a school event, or even an engagement party as well! But the unique part is that prior to the day of the event is made, a list of people who are expected to attend is always listed and anyone who tries to claim they're in that party that's not on the list is automatically denied and isn't even allowed back. Even when an outsider tries to sneak into the party as a regular guest in the restaurant, outside guests not in the 'party list' will be kicked out of the restaurant. So, no party crashers in here.

“Yeah, I know. I'm dragged into another Filipino party like always,” Wave stated, knowing she's been with both of her Filipino friends (Jet and Storm) into a party that usual involves friends, food, a bunch of family members, and games that gets even people over the age of ten want to toss something in the air. “However, I don't think I can make it.”

“What?” Jet stopped drinking his bubble tea, almost choking on a tapioca pearl he was struggling to get out of the straw. “Why not? Did you suddenly remember you have to do something important tomorrow?”

“Pretty much,” Wave nodded her head, swishing the straw back and forth. “It's just that I'm going to-”

Unfortunately for the brunette, her sentence ended up being cut short when the lights in the entire restaurant went out, leaving the room dark. Not only that, the TV screen that's been showing the news has gone blank, the music from a popular Filipino telenovela stopped playing (to the joy of Jet he'll admit), and the machines that make the tea stopped.

Power outages do happen in Metal City once in a while either by a malfunction, or somebody forced the power in that building to shut down. In most cases, it's the former rather than the later.

“Everyone okay?” an employee asked the customers inside, holding a flashing in his hands. “We'll get the power back on in a few minutes, so don't worry.”

Jet and Wave sighed in relief that nobody broke the power of the tea shop, but that was cut short when they heard several people screaming, some of them saying that their belongings are gone from their eyes. Oh great, a thief is here! With a few people not using their phones as an alternative source of light, it's difficult to see the thief in the dark. So difficult that the two teens barely had the time to spot the hard-to-see thief snatch their necklaces from them!

And their necklaces weren't a cheap necklace bought from any accessory store. Wave's red orb necklace was made by her father while Jet's winged necklace was actually a birthday gift from his father. Hell, that necklace was once his grandfather's necklace, so in a way, that necklace is a family heirloom! Jet did not want to see his father pissed at him for losing something so valuable!

Desperate to get both his and Wave's necklace back from that thief, Jet shot out of his seat, grabbing his Extreme Gear before dashing towards the door…

SLAM!

“Oh, gods...” Jet moaned in pain as he slammed straight towards the automatic doors that aren't working. “Forgot about that!”

“Way to go, short-head,” Wave sarcastically replied as she checked on her black-haired friend, backing up to a near-by chair. “We're trapped in here and it'll take a miracle to get-”

And as if fate is just teasing the two of them, Jet and Wave spotted their friend, Storm, yelling loudly while he dashed through the door, ramming it in the process, along with shattering the glass as well. Typical of Storm. If anything bad happens, using brute strength apparently works for Storm pretty well unlike most people.

“Problem solved,” Storm said.

“You do realize that your boss is going to get pissed at you for breaking the doors,” Wave pointed out to the shattered evidence.

“It's not the first time that happened in here.”

“You've done this before?” Jet asked, shocked that Storm would just casually break the automatic doors in the place he works.

“N-no! Other employees and customers did this too!” Storm replied to Jet's question.

“Just… wow… just...” Jet can say before he hopped onto his Extreme Gear. “So, which way did that thief went?”

“Uh… To the left, but are you sure-”

Unfortunately for Storm, Jet had already left the tea shop before the dirty blonde can even finish his sentence. Both Wave and Storm didn't need to even take a guess at why Jet would be asking the direction that thief ran off to. He's obviously going to catch that thief and get back everyone's necklaces that were stolen. And even if somebody manages to prevent Jet from nabbing the thief, he would most likely ignore them and go for the thief anyway. It's not the first time Jet has done something like chasing down a criminal to a corner.

Heck, he did helped his father, a police officer, arrest criminals for minor offenses such as robbery and vandalizing valuable property. Ever since Jet witnessed his dad doing his job at the age of five, he dreamed of being in his father's shoes one day, or at least close to it if possible such as an agent or being part of the military (though he would prefer the former). Yes, he's aware of the dangers of his possible future career choices as it can lead to injuries or almost close to dying, but they offer him a thrill people secretly crave at times. Thrills that Jet enjoys to have on a daily basis.

Now, he's getting it by chasing that thief, scurrying through the busy streets of Metal City while carrying a large sack that predictably has all the stolen stuff from HappyTea, mainly Jet's and Wave's necklaces. Jet is currently gaining on him due to the speed his board going a lot faster than the thief's running speed, but by the time Jet was about to grab the thief's sack of stolen goods, the thief turned around and punched Jet in the stomach, causing the black-haired teen to fall off of his board, landing on the ground.

“You bastard!” Jet yelled as he slowly got up, using a near-by lamppost as support. As he is recovering from the sting he received, Jet spotted the thief making his getaway at Astra Park; a public park he likes to visit with his friends once in a while. This isn't good as this means that nasty thief will steal more stuff from others, and may possibly get away with it since there's not a lot of security in Astra Park.

 _Gotta speed up,_ Jet thought as he got back on his board and hurried to Astra Park to the best of his ability. But despite the speed he went as he entered the park, Jet ended up being too late when he heard tons of screams from children, crying that either their toy, bike, or any type of jewelry ended up getting snatched in a blink of an eye.

Jet spotted the thief coming for a young boy near a fountain, drinking a strawberry-banana smoothie from a food truck. Unfortunately for the boy, he's oblivious to the thief that will eventually snatch something important from him, and could possibly send him flying towards the water filled with pennies, nickles, and a token from an arcade. Not wanting that scenario to happen, Jet stepped on the booster panel hard (where his left foot is) on the board, going at the maximum speed his board can go to beat the thief.

But right when he's about to reach the young boy and the thief, Jet spotted a boy his age with weird white short spiky hair, holding something that's firing a laser beam at the thief…

Or… that was going to be the plan as Jet barely jumped out of his board on time to prevent himself from crashing into the teen. While the Filipino managed to prevent a second crash for today, he didn't expect his board to hit the white-haired teen's arm, causing the laser to aim at a tree branch near them.

Frustrated that the white-haired teen missed his intended target because of someone's board, he turned around, yellow eyes glaring at Jet and hissed at him, “Nice going, you jerk! I could have gotten him if it weren't for your board!”

“Well, excuse me! You were in my way in the first place, you little snowflake!” Jet snapped back at the teen, now giving him a nickname based on his very 'out-of-place' hair color compared to most people in this city.

“S-snowflake?! Why you-”

But before either of them can make another comment, they were interrupted with the thief laughing happily as he snatched both the little boy's smoothie and a golden necklace with an airplane on it.

“Sayonara, suckers!” the thief exclaimed, ignoring the little boy's crying and splashed into the fountain, causing the three boys to get soaked with water.

“I really didn't want to do this,” the teen started his sentence as he fumbled with his black belt wrapped around his gray pants.

Curious as to why 'Snowflake' (as Jet refers to) is undoing his belt, he asked him, “Are you going to whip that jerk into giving the stolen stuff back, Snowflake?”

“Not even close. And for the record,” the belt around 'Snowflake's' hands suddenly glowed a bright blue light and grew three times longer than normal when he snapped his fingers, “Don't call me Snowflake. **I'd like it if you would address me as Silver.** ”

Letting the belt to fall into the ground, Silver starting to spin it before he tossed the entire whip towards the thief, jumping from branch to branch. As the thief spotted the glowing whip, he jumped over it to avoid being attacked from it, but to his surprise, the whip ended up coming back at him, automatically tying up the evasive thief and him dropping the large bag of stolen goods to a wooden bench with names engraved into it.

“Hot damn, that was amazing, Silver,” Jet can only comment in awe of what he witnessed. “Wait until my friends hears… Oh gods, the necklaces!” Why did he forget about that for a second?!

Rushing towards the bench where the thief's bag is located, Jet was about to open the sack with his bare hands until Silver used a laser to rip a large hole, causing all the stolen objects to pour out of it, some of them falling into the ground.

“You can thank me later, Crash,” Silver stated as he walked towards the thief tied from the whip, giving Jet a nickname based on his actions.

“My name isn't Crash,” Jet pointed out to Silver.

“Oh, then what is your name?”

“I'm Angelo Hawkins, but most people call me Jet. Call me whichever is comfortable for ya, Silver.”

“Alright then, Angelo,” Silver said as he's making a call on the phone. While he's waiting for someone to answer, the thief somehow ended up lightly kicking Silver's black and white boots. In response to that, he kicked the thief's legs hard before ordering him, “Don't try anything funny or I'll electrocute you with those binds.”

“You wouldn't,” the thief growled at the white-haired teen.

Silver just simply snapped his fingers before he heard the thief screamed in pain as his body is being shocked all over his body; fingers and toes being barely able to move freely.

“Oh, I would.” Silver simply smiled as somebody picked up.

 _“You finished with your job?”_ a female voice asked Silver.

“Yeah. I would have done it faster if it weren't for…” Silver was about to say 'Jet', but at the last second, he stated, “...For someone messing it up.”

_“Really? What happened?”_

“An Extreme Gear that was going fast hit my arm, almost causing the thief to escape,” Silver explained to the caller. “But other than that, everything went well...”

As Jet is rummaging through a pile of shoes, dresses that he's sure are the cost of his entire closet, toys, old books, and even a globe, he eventually managed to find both his necklace, along with Wave's. Fortunately, none of them have gotten any major damages or scratches, so they're in tact. No scolding for Jet from either Wave or his father. Nice!

While Jet is putting his necklace on, his phone vibrated from his front pocket. Pulling it, he checked that there was five text messages from three different numbers. One from Storm, one from Wave, and the other two messages were from a number Jet didn't recognize at all. He decided to check the message from Storm and Wave first before checking the other from the unknown number. It's not the same number that the prank caller used, but he swears to the gods that it better not be another prank caller or he'll search that jerk with that number!

_**Storm/Silas: Where are you, Jet? Wave and I are really getting worried about you...** _

_**Wave/Winona: Like Storm said,I'm worried about you... If you're okay and got my necklace, let's meet in your house.** _

_**And no, Storm isn't with me since his shift ends at 3:30. I want to continue our conversation. This time, in private (AKA: your room).** _

_**745-8370: The remaining stuff will be returned to their owners, Angelo.** _

_**BTW, if you're wondering who this is, it's me: Silver. Or as you called me, Snowflake.** _

Spending two minutes of reading the messages, Jet almost dropped his phone at the last two messages he read. Just how is it possible that Silver managed to get Jet's number despite the fact that neither of them asked for it in the first place?!

“Ugh… I'm too tired to think about it...” Jet said his thoughts aloud, ready to get his board near the fountain before going home as he put Wave's necklace on his left pocket.

However, Jet's right foot felt something hard underneath it instead of the soft green grass. Wondering what that object might be, he bent down to see that the guilty culprit of it is an aquamarine ball-point pen. Well, it didn't fell out of the sack (as far as Jet is concerned), but somebody must have dropped it by accident. Still, it's just a pen and they'll just not notice it, getting a new pen that's probably better than the one Jet grabbed anyway.

“Finders keepers~” Jet singed happily as he stared at it, clicking it…

Firing a laser?! No, not a laser light! As in actual laser hitting a tree branch and letting it almost hit Jet's head if he didn't move out of the way on time.

“What the hell?!”

Jet could only stare at the pen in shock after he accidentally fired an actual laser on a tree branch that could have injured him. Anyone in Jet's shoes would say “That's so awesome!”, but Jet didn't say anything after that. He wonders if Silver could have dropped it as he did have a belt that doubles as a whip taser (as Jet dubs it). Most likely, but he could…

Not ask him as Silver and the tied up thief weren't in the scene. Ooh, that's just wonderful. He could just text Silver to see if the pen was his, or ask him where he lives so Jet can stop by and give it back. Either way, both of these options seems to be good ideas, but at this point, he just wants to go home before both of his parents storm out of the house just to search for him. By now, the blackout and the robbery at HappyTea must have caught the attention of his family. And by attention, he means being smothered by his mom and responding to her that he's fine over and over again.

With that, Jet finally grabbed his Extreme Gear, hopped on it and rushed out of Astra Park and making his way home quickly, expecting to meet not only his worrying parents, but Wave who has important matters to discuss with him that she didn't want Storm to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter: Fastest Thing Alive  
> (No guesses as to who appears next chapter)


	2. The Fastest Thing Alive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have put in an Overwatch reference in there since I briefly played it once at someone else's house.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

“Where could that damned Chaos Emerald be?”

Over an hour since Shadow has finally found a signal in the neighborhood he's currently in and he can no longer track it as the strong signal from his radar has suddenly vanished. The best conclusion that Shadow can come up is that someone who's currently holding one of the seven Chaos Emeralds is out of the neighborhood for now. And that only makes the search much more difficult than it needs to be due to the fact that anyone returning from where ever they went could possibly be holding an Emerald.

Ugh! Right when Shadow found at least one strong signal from the Chaos Emeralds, the search for one becomes a chore to do. He didn't get out of his apartment on a blazing day without a strong wind just to find nothing! Maybe he should look somewhere else in hopes that-

“Out of the way!”

Shadow turned around to see a teenager riding an Extreme Gear at a fast rate, his winged necklace dangling on his neck. Fortunately, Shadow managed to dodge the incoming teenager by sidestepping to the left, avoiding any injuries that may happen to him. However, as the black-haired teen passed by Shadow, the latter noticed that the radar from his watch is beeping louder than before, meaning the Emerald is near-by. But suddenly right when the boy is out of Shadow's sight, the signal suddenly got weaker before the beeping grew fainter until it vanished.

“Guess I found it,” Shadow said to himself as he's able to put the pieces together. It's simple for Shadow that the boy must have one of the Chaos Emeralds in his possession. The only thing Shadow needs to do is to find out where he lives.

But despite the boy not being in Shadow's sight, he can simply track the teen down no problem as the Chaos Emerald's energy signal will lead him to the teen's house. Seems simple enough. In a matter of minutes, Shadow will be in possession of two Emeralds no problem. Now all that Shadow needs to do is to convince the boy to give the Emerald to him without any arguments, or the worse case scenario, a fist fight.

Like that would be a problem for him.

* * *

 

~Meanwhile~

 

Hopping off of his Extreme Gear, Jet sighed loudly as he's able to return home as quickly as possible. And to his luck, no messages or calls from anyone in the past ten minutes; especially from his parents. That's the last thing Jet wanted as his parents, mainly his mom, would be calling him every five minutes if something horrible happened to him. The incident from HappyTea would most likely be in the local news, and the news could have possibly gotten footage of Jet chasing down the thief into Astra Park, along with the mysterious person named Silver.

Speaking of Silver, Jet is still in awe on how he Silver could have gotten his number in the first place. So far, there were no good conclusions the Filipino can come up with that didn't make Silver sound like a stalker that founded his phone number by pure coincidence.

Agh! Maybe he should ask Wave about it.

Jet opened the front door, slipping off his red shoes on the place mat, still carrying his Extreme Gear before he loudly announced to the house, “I'm home!”, hoping to get an immediate response-

“ _Ikaw ay ligtas, anak!_ ” Jet's mom hugged her son tightly, prompting Jet to drop his green board on the wooden floor.

“ _Inay, itigil_ ,” Jet can only utter in Tagalog, trying to free himself from his mom's hugs. Apparently, it usually takes Jet two or three tries at best to persuade his mom from releasing him from her hug, or the worse case scenario, ten times. At that point, “Mom, I'm going to lose oxygen if you don't let me go!”

No sign of his mom releasing him.

“For the love of the gods, I'm alright, mom!” Jet exclaimed, in hopes the third attempt would get his mom out of her 'smothering' mode.

But just like the last attempt, nope.

“Naylene, I think Angelo has had enough,” another voice popped in.

Hearing the voice, Naylene released her son from her hug as she turned around to see her husband, Blake, carrying a can of mango juice in his hand. “Oh, I'm sorry, dear. Its just that when I heard a thief broke into the cafe and stole something from you and your friend, I was worried that-”

“I might have gotten hurt,” Jet finished his mother's sentence, knowing the exact sentence structure that he has heard from his mother several times whenever his life might be at stake. “The thief kicked me in the stomach-”

“WHAT?!” Naylene yelled in horror that someone would hurt her little boy.

“ _I-Inay_ , I'm okay for the most part!” Jet reassured, shaking his hands. “Besides, I've got my necklace, along with Wave's.”

“How did you get it back?” Blake asked his son. “Don't tell me you beat the ever living daylights out of that thief.”

“Though I would like to, I didn't,” Jet responded to his father while grabbing the can of mango juice from his father's hands. “Some kid named Silver ended up catching the thief with an electrical whip or something.”

“Really? I would like to have something like that,” Blake replied as he went into the kitchen, getting a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Yeah, but after I got what I needed-” Jet paused his sentence as he needed to pick his words carefully based on the events that happened this afternoon. There's no way Jet can't mention he's in possession of a laser pen. That would defiantly make his parents worry more, especially his mom since she considers a laser (not the pointer lasers) as a dangerous weapon. After thinking, he continued, “I just rode out of Astra Park and got home.”

“So nothing bad happened to you?” Naylene asked her son.

“Nothing,” Jet replied as he grabbed his board off the floor and started climbing up the stairs, chugging down the mango juice in one go. “By the way, did Wave happen to go upstairs?”

“Yes. Your future girlfriend is currently-”

“ARGHH! For the last time mom, she's not my girlfriend!” Jet yelled to his mother, annoyed that she still thinks that the two might be thinking of going out eventually. Just because Jet and Wave have been friends for years doesn't mean they'll automatically have a relationship most couples would envy.

Ignoring his father's laughter from downstairs, Jet reached the upstairs floor, or the play room as there's a TV screen primarily used for video games that Jet and Bean would often play, where he spotted Wave and Bean sitting on the light red sofa, playing the latest online first-person shooter game that gained popularity in just two months since its release date. And based on what he's seeing on the screen, Wave is dominating Bean's team thanks to her teammates buffing her character's defense and offense… Along with her team having better teammates than Bean. Really, Bean's best members includes a cyborg ninja and a gorilla scientist, while the rest of his members are playing characters that are designed for advanced players.

“Come on, just a little more,” Bean muttered, focusing on his aim at the black hooded character with two shotguns. “That target point is mine!”

“You wish,” Wave replied, smiling that the match is hers. “Besides, you know what time it is?”

“Oh no. Please don't tell me...”

_It's high noon for Bean,_ Jet thought to himself as he tossed the can of mango juice into the trash, knowing his younger brother is going to lose the match.

Bean didn't finish his sentence when he spotted his character getting instantly killed by Wave's bullets despite having full health, along with two of his teammates.

“And that's game,” Wave said as the timer reached zero, her defense team being the victor of this match. “You know what you have to do.”

“Fine,” Bean muttered as he tossed the controller on the rug before going downstairs, muttering angrily to himself, “Why did I chose that character in the first place?! If I had just...”

Picking up the black wireless controller from the rug, Jet asked his brunette friend, “What did you mean by that?”

“Well, Bean wanted to go against me at that game,” Wave started her story as she declined for another match online, “And I told him I'd obliterate him and his team no problem. So Bean wanted to prove me wrong, and made things interesting. The team that loses must buy the winner candy of their choice.”

“And you won...” Jet stated the obvious as he placed the wireless controller on a container where they keep the controllers on the gaming systems they own. “So that means, he has to...”

He didn't even have to finish his sentence as he knew what Wave wanted whenever she has the freedom to choose her sweets. Which means for Bean that he has to walk (or ride his Extreme Gear) to the convenient store where they sell that candy exclusive to that store. Poor him.

“While you're waiting for my brother to come back, we can go to my room since I remember you wanted to continue our conversation in private,” Jet reminded Wave, his hand already on the pocket containing Wave's necklace. “And yes,” the Filipino pulled out the red orb necklace from his left pocket and handed it to the brunette before concluding his sentence, “I didn't forget about this.”

“Thanks.” Wave smiled as she put on her necklace. “So, did you had any trouble getting that thief?”

“A bit, though. Someone named Silver happened to catch him with a whip that doubles as a taser.”

“A taser whip? That's something you don't see everyday.”

“I know! I wonder where he got it?” Jet wondered as he opened the door to his room.

As the two friends were entering the bedroom, Jet took off his plaid shirt and tossing it onto his laundry basket, leaving his white sleeveless shirt on. He soon laid on his bed after turning on the fan since his room felt very humid and hot, even though the air conditioning in this house is still working just fine. Wave could have pulled out the chair from his desk, but she choose to sit at the edge of the bed like she always would despite the fact that, besides the chair from his desk, there's a small couch that would fit three people.

As Wave took off her red Sperrys, she noticed a book on the floor and decided to pick it up, scrolling through the contents of it. Jet grabbed the book from Wave's hands and aimlessly tossed it back to his desk, though it landed on the laundry basket due to the lack of a loud 'thud' to indicate that he successfully did it.

“It's my book, not yours,” Jet replied to Wave.

“I technically bought it for you. Remember?” Wave decided to answer back, hoping that Jet would remember that she gave it to him on his birthday a few weeks ago.

“Oh, well then, buy your own copy!” Jet corrected himself, both of his hands at the back of his head. “So, what did you wanted to talk to me about that you didn't want Storm to know?”

“Okay. But first, do you promise not to tell Storm ANYTHING about our conversation, even if he begs?” Wave questioned Jet, putting emphasis on 'anything'.

“I swear,” Jet replied with three fingers in the air, showing in his language that he promises to do something such as keep vital secrets or be at a certain location for someone. “You won't hear me mutter a word about this to Storm.”

“Good. Lord knows what would happen if I told this to him.”

As in, the secret will be out in less than a half hour. Maybe two hours if he's lucky.

“Alright then, tell me,” Jet stated, looking at Wave.

“Fine,” Wave stopped to take a short breath before telling her black-haired friend, “The reason I'm not going to the birthday party tomorrow is that I have to go… Oh, gods do I dare say it… Please don't laugh on what I'm about to say, short-head.”

“I won't.” Jet again held out three fingers to Wave.

“You asked for it. I'm going dress shopping with my mom-”

“WHAT?!” Jet exclaimed in surprise, his head off his pillows and his back off the sheets.

“Let me finish!” Wave snapped back. “I'm going dress shopping with my mom because I'm going to a wedding in Paris on August 7th!”

After Wave revealed her reason on not going to the birthday party tomorrow, the room was in silence minus the whirling of Jet's ceiling fan letting out some cool air. Wave can understand why Jet wouldn't say anything immediately since he's receiving this news at the last minute. Well, the dress shopping anyway. Besides, her going dress shopping did came out of nowhere to Wave to be fair; she did get the memo on Tuesday. The news that she's going to Paris with her parents does give her some time to inform her friends (mainly Jet), but the dress shopping just came at the time where she has something going on (a birthday party to attend).

So after what feels like a minute to the both of them, Jet broke the silence by saying, “Really?”

“Sadly, yes,” Wave responded, looking up at the ceiling fan. “My mom thought tomorrow would be a really good time to buy me a new dress for this occasion despite the fact I own a few good dresses.”

To be more precise, dresses she wore to semi-formal occasions such as a wedding anniversary, and various of school dances she was dragged into.

“Hey, weddings require you to look a little sexier than usual,” Jet replied as he looked out at the window. He swore he saw something on the tree close to his window. Could be someone's cat or that one kid that likes to climb on that tree.

“So what you're trying to say is that I'm not good looking all the time?” Wave interpreted Jet's comment.

Oh, gods. Not good!

Jet's focus on the mysterious stranger/object (he doesn't quite know) from outside his window is lost when he heard Wave's comment. He didn't expect Wave to say that! Now his face is turning a shade of red when trying to reply back to her!

“What?! N...no! You already look great...” Jet wished he didn't chugged his mango juice earlier. He really needs a sip of it now after saying that sentence! Or another can after he finishes his sentence that might make him faint. “But what I was trying to say… Uh… Gods, this sounded a lot better in my head.”

“I don't blame you, short-head,” Wave said. “I think I know what you're trying to say.”

“Really? Oh, thank the gods.” Jet heavily sighed. “That's one less thing I have to worry about today.”

“Eh? What other things did you have on your mind, short-head?”

“Well...”

Jet did wanted to tell Wave about the laser pen and more info on Silver. Guess this is the right time to do it before Bean barges in and teases him and Wave like the immature little brother he is.

“Remember when I mentioned Silver earlier?” Jet started the conversation as he moved closer to where Wave is.

“Yeah.” Wave nodded her head. “What about the guy that helped you earlier?”

“Well, for starters, his hair isn't exactly normal. It's like he dyed it… well… silver. Or a shade of it, I'm not too sure...”

“Really? Go on...”

“Second,” Jet pulled out the pen he founded earlier, handing it to Wave.

“What's so special about it anyway?”

“Click it.”

Wave did so, and in an instant, a laser shot out of it, hitting one of the sofa pillows. Luckily, it didn't damage it too much, only leaving some black markings on the white and blue pillow.

“Holy crap, Jet,” Wave commented, handing it back to him after what she witnessed.

“My feelings exactly,” Jet said, putting the pen back into his pocket. “I found it at Astra Park after getting our necklaces back.”

“Who the hell leaves a random laser pen in a park anyway?!”

“My best guess would have to be Silver, though on accident. Which brings me to my third point.” Jet pulls his phone to show Wave the text message with Silver's number on it. “Silver happened to get my number despite the fact I never told him it.”

“Really? That's awkward. Did you ever met him prior to today?”

Jet shook his head 'no', placing the phone next to him, screen facing down.

“That's just it. I have no idea how he could have possibly retrieved it in the first place,” Jet said, now lying back down.

Wave picked up Jet's phone and replied, “You want me to call Silver for a little investigation?”

“No way,” Jet said, grabbing his phone from Wave's hand as he's now sitting back. “Besides, if it weren't for him, then we would've never gotten our necklaces back, along with the thief getting away with the stolen stuff.”

“Alright. You made a fair point. Still...” Wave smiled as she slowly tried to steal back Jet's phone from his hands. “I promised to you I can call back your prank caller. Can I still do that?”

“Well...” Jet didn't have to think twice about it since that prank caller did call him fifteen times today. Yes, he counted. “Go for it.”

Wave was about to grab it, but Jet quickly got out of the bed and held his phone up as high as he can, “That is, if you can get it from me!”

“Oh, you're so on!” Wave accepted Jet's challenge as she got out of Jet's bed and attempted to get her friend's phone. This should have been easy for her since she's easily taller than him, but to her surprise, she missed it at the last second due to Jet moving it to the left.

She tried grabbing aiming for the left, yet instead of Jet moving his arm to whatever direction Wave predicted, he suddenly dashed out of his room while screaming, “Catch me if you can, Winnie!”

“THAT DOES IT!” Wave snapped back loudly, barging out of Jet's room and chasing after her friend that leads to the game room, downstairs, and the kitchen. The two were lucky that neither Blake nor Naylene didn't scold them for running inside the house, especially Jet. In fact, Jet's parents are used to this type of action happening in the house due to Jet and Bean's bickering and shouting that lead to pointless chases around most of the house.

Jet was sure that he can avoid her, but to his surprise, Wave ended up snatching the phone from his hands while he wasn't looking. To be more precise, she was behind the couch and decided that chasing him just for a prank call was pointless. So the logical thing that Wave can do to prevent herself from getting exhausted from running around the house is wait until Jet is near the couch to grab his phone. The result: SUCCESS!

“I've got it fair and square. Now, let's see...” Wave smiled as she scrolled down to Jet's call history to find the prank caller, sitting on the couch. And to be honest, it's not that difficult when she sees the same number more than three times that doesn't have a name.

“You found the number al-” As he's making his way to where Wave is, Jet's sentence was cut off when he tripped on one of the legs from the glass coffee table, and ended up crashing to the couch. And if that's not enough, he also ended up on top of his brunette friend, brown eyes and blue eyes meeting.

“Uh…” both of them can only say as they process on what just happened, faces turning red.

Right when Jet was about to give space to Wave, he heard the front door opening and his younger brother saying out loud, “Hey, Wave! It took me a bit longer, but I got your chocolate covered gummy bea-” only to pause his sentence when he witnessed that his brother is on top of Wave on the couch.

This scene plus the immaturity of Bean can only result:

“Kuya, I didn't know you wanted to get into first base with Wave that badly!”

For Jet, however…

“BEAN!” Jet yelled as he got up from the couch and threw the closet pillow towards Bean, hitting him in the face. “It was an accident! I tripped on the table legs and fell on her!”

“Oh, sure it was...” Bean sarcastically replied while kicking the pillow, not believing his older brother. “I bet you did it on purpose.”

“OH, THAT'S IT!” exploded both Jet and Wave, the latter snatching the pillow to toss at the fourteen year old.

“What?! I mean-”

“Shut the hell up, Bean!” Wave shouted as she jumped off the couch and started to chase after the annoying little brother, who immediately started to go upstairs and enter his room before he faces the fury of his brother's best friend.

_He totally deserves that,_ Jet snickered in his thoughts.

_You said it…_ another voice popped into the inner conversation.

Wait a minute… That can't be possible.

Wondering who in the right mind would've invaded his mind (if that's even possible), Jet turned around behind him to see someone taller (and maybe older) than him with blue short spiky hair, casually tossing a golden ring in his hands.

“Hey there!” the blue haired figure spoke, putting the golden ring on his wrist.

Jet could have said something like 'hello' or 'hey there' back, but Jet is far from fine when he's seeing a mysterious teen/man (still doesn't know his exact age yet) that's in his house! He didn't even see this blue-haired figure enter with Bean, nor did he exactly saw him prior to this moment.

Suspicious that this weird person might be a criminal that would rob his house, Jet snatched a pillow from the couch and started to back his arm for a little more force on the weird person. However, before he can even toss the pillow at the blue-haired figure, Jet witnessed the figure running quickly and taking the pillow from his hand! From Jet's perspective, that man was like a blur just from something like a sprint. And that man is far from normal…

“Just… who are you?” Jet asked, backing up from the blue-haired figure, eventually landing on the couch.

“Okay, I guess that needs to be cleared up before you toss any more stuff at me,” the figure replied as he sat down next towards the shocked and confused Filipino. “So, I'm Sonic, though my birth name is actually Ryan Griffith. And the next part will probably shock you, but I'm-”

“One of the five heroes from 200 years ago,” Jet concluded Sonic's sentence, remembering that from the book he read earlier. As he finished what Sonic was going to say, he grabbed another pillow and tossed it into the “hero's” face.

“Alright, I expected you to do that. But seriously, I'm telling you the truth,” Sonic assured the teen and grabbing both of Jet's hands. “And don't you dare toss any more pillows or anything at my face at this point.”

“Fine, I won't. But if you're the hero from 200 years ago, then...”

“I shouldn't be here is what you're saying, right?” Sonic concluded Jet's question, which the latter nodded in agreement. “Fair enough. Without boring you to death, I was sealed into an artifact called the Chaos Emeralds, along with four of my friends, right after my death.”

“Wait...”

Realizing what Sonic had said, Jet checked his necklace to see if he has a Chaos Emerald on him due to the fact that it's the only accessory he had on him that has anything resembling a jewel. To his surprise, the small blue jewel next to the wing is glowing brightly when he touched it. Oh gods, he couldn't believe it! Prior to today, the jewel never glowed in front of Jet!

“No way...” Jet can only say, staring at the small blue Chaos Emerald and back at Sonic.

“Believe it,” Sonic replied back.

“I remember my dad saying this necklace is special when he gave it to me on my birthday, but I didn't think he meant this!”

“What did you think he meant by 'special'?”

“As a good luck charm. Plus, it's been passed down by my family for years.”

“Interesting. Can you explain-” Sonic was cut when the two heard footsteps from the stairs, along with a voice.

“Alright, that takes care of your poor brother,” Wave commented as she sat down next to Jet, handing him one piece of the 'cavity bear' as he likes to dub it. “Go ahead and take it.”

Instead of taking it like he would, Jet wonders if Wave has seen Sonic like he has earlier.

Curious, he asks, “Hey, do you see a person with blue hair sitting next to my left?”

Wave turned to see what Jet is talking about and responds to him, “Uh… No? What, are you suddenly seeing things?”

“N...No!”

How can any normal human being miss someone with bright blue hair?! Jet can physically see Sonic, snickering at what's going on.

“I swear, he was in the house a minute-”

_It's no use explaining it to her,_ Sonic informed the confused Filipino in his thoughts.

_What do you mean? Hurry up or I'll throw something harder than a pillow at your face!_

_Well, you can see me. Right?_

_Yeah? And Wave can't see you because…_ Jet paused his sentence in order for Sonic to finish the missing piece in his thoughts.

_She has no access to any energy from the Chaos Emeralds. So in short, you got to own or at least harness some energy from it in order to see me._

_I fall in section one. Correct?_

_Bingo! For the most part, your friends and family can't see me. And we can communicate with-_

_Our thoughts. I figured that part out, Sonic._ Jet finished Sonic's sentence, chewing the cavity bear. _So one more question before our mind conversation ends._

_Fire away._

_You think you can appear to everyone without access to energy from the emerald?_

_That's child's play to me! But, how about I do that tomorrow_ _so I won't freak out your friend?_

_Fine by me._

_Cool. Now, let's listen to your friend prank call the poor victim._

Jet witnessed Wave waiting for the prank caller to pick up the phone and laugh at what's going to happen next.

As he's watching the two teens engage at the prank call, Sonic spotted someone with black hair and red streaks staring at the window before he vanished from the ancient hero's green eyes. Sonic can only assume that guy was just passing by, but Sonic has a small feeling that the stranger passing down Jet's house didn't do this just by coincidence, but on purpose.

Why?

* * *

 

_**“Silver, it's Shadow. Get the others into the apartment in about ten minutes. I have news to share about the Chaos Emeralds. It's… special.”** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a lot longer than I expected, but I finished this chapter. Hopefully, I can get the next one out since this one has a lot more action... (Cross my fingers I can do this well)  
> Next Chapter: Kidnapped!


	3. Kidnapped!

“… _Just about an hour earlier, a robbery happened at a local tea cafe, HappyTea, with the thief stealing some of the customers' personal belongings. Fortunately, an agent from GUN stopped the thief from stealing any more items, along with an unknown person that-”_

_“…_ _For those just tuning in, 4_ _0_ _year-old Laurence Fortier has been released from prison a month ago and is currently living in Metal City, Texas with his two children after a shocking revelation revealed that Laurence didn't_ _murder his wife, Marissa_ _and was wrongfully accused for ten years. While most people who knew Laurence were relieved that the actual victim,_ _Justin Clarke,_ _was rightfully arrested and facing life in prison with no_ _parole_ _, there are protests outside the police stations and courthouse claiming why it took them that long to realize their mistake. The most common response is that they've secretly rigged-”_

_“…_ _This is an example of hate crime against African_ _-”_

_“…_ _No one knows why_ _Clarke_ _framed an innocent day care center worker man, Laurence-”_

Silver has been switching between channels, wanting to not hear anymore news about the thievery an hour ago or controversial topics such as unfair treatment of other races (like with Laurence) and murder. He's already hearing news about it from the agency everyday, so he doesn't want to be greeting with more horrible news when he switches the TV on. Maybe Silver should check out his favorite cartoon that he fell behind on. He did want to know who's the author of the three journals that were in the entire-

“I can't believe that girl dissed me, Espio!”

That can wait since that series is recorded for Silver anyway. His two co-workers, Charmy and Espio, entered the apartment door, with the former entering the kitchen and immediately opening the fridge for food while the latter sat next to the right of Silver.

“Charlie, please don't,” Espio ordered the younger agent, head poking in the fridge.

“Too late! Got myself some fruit punch! And how many times I told you, call me Charmy! Not Charlie!” Charmy replied to Espio as he sat down into a black futon that's on the other side of where the couch is. “I need to drown my sorrows down after what happened...”

“You could have asked Shadow before you raided his fridge.”

“But he's not-” Charmy's sentence was cut short when the door opened, revealing Shadow and his partner, Rouge.

“Sorry I'm late. Rouge offered me a ride,” Shadow explained as he sat down in the couch next to Silver. “And yes Charmy, you can have the punch.”

“Yea!” Charmy cheered as he chugged on the red juice.

“So Shadow, you had news you wanted to share with us, right?” Rouge asked, deciding not to sit down with anyone, especially with Charmy. She would love to, but only if he weren't eating/drinking anything. Especially something that would leave a noticeable stain on her white v-neck.

“Correct.” Shadow nodded before turning to Silver. “And you do realize you don't need to be in your avatar form. No one in this room is-”

“Outside of GUN, I know,” Silver sighed as he returned back to his normal form; his silver/white hair turning blonde and a bit shorter, along with his gold eyes turning into silver. “Sorry, I just got home after taking the thief into custody and reporting to the police on what happened.”

“Well that's fine,” Rouge added as she walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge to find a bottle of water. If anyone else opens Shadow and Silver's refrigerator without permission, expect plastic plates thrown at them. However, Rouge is a frequent visitor in their place, so she can get whatever she likes. As long as she doesn't steal Shadow's favorite drink (Chaos Cola), but that doesn't happen unless there's five cans in there. “And you did mentioned that a stranger almost ruined the arrest.”

“That's right,” Silver answered to Rouge. “His board ended up hitting my arm, though...”

As Silver was explaining to everyone in the room about what happened, Shadow remembered the teen he passed by earlier while searching for the remaining six Chaos Emeralds. Why six? Shadow did have one of the seven emeralds in his possession; the red one to be exact. Using the emerald he founded, Shadow, with the help from developers in the weapons department, created a Chaos Emerald tracker in the watches all GUN agents are required to wear.

The watches, besides tracking down the Chaos Emeralds, can scan for clues not visible to the normal eye, contact others in case something goes wrong with their phone, and the major one that Shadow mentioned earlier to Silver: the avatar form that alters the user's appearance (hair/eye color, height, etc.) to protect their identity.

And when Shadow passed by the teen, the signal matched the one from the red emerald, making Shadow to follow the teen to his house. Of course, Shadow can't just randomly barge into the teen's house since there's a chance that there's someone might have a gun, resulting into an unnecessary gun fight. Luckily, that never happened as he decided to do some old fashion snooping to see the boy. He did almost get noticed by the boy while he was on a tree and by someone with abnormal blue hair.

That's all Shadow had seen from the teen's house, but he found enough evidence that he has the next Chaos Emerald.

“… I never mentioned his name while I called you, Rouge,” Silver informed to the dirty blond, coming back from the kitchen. “But the teen I met is named **Angelo Hawkins, though** **most people called him Jet.** ”

Jet… Wait a minute… That's the name Shadow overheard thanks to the girl (he thinks she's called 'Wave') saying it.

To be sure, Shadow asked the bright blond teen, “Tell me Silver, did 'Jet' happened to have a green Extreme Gear and had black hair?”

“Now that I remember, yes. I even have his number,” Silver confirmed to Shadow, showing him Jet's number: 538-4295.

“How did you even get his number?” Espio wondered how that's possible.

“Uh… It's kind of embarrassing, but...”

“Don't want to know,” Shadow interrupted Silver's story on Jet's number. “Besides-”

Out of nowhere, Charmy jumped out of the futon and snatched Silver's phone out of his hand, while the young agent pulled out his own phone and looked at the screen at both phones.

“Charmy, what was that for?!” Silver demanded, annoyed that the fourteen-year-old would snatch his phone. “You could have just asked...”

“I would, but then you wouldn't realize...” Charmy paused his sentence to show everyone in the room the screens of both phones: both Charmy's and Silver's phone has Jet's phone number!

“Y...You have his…?”

“I do! I tested it out by doing some prank calls, but one of his friends must have caught on and ended up-”

“Save that for later, Charlie,” Espio cut off Charmy's sentence, not wanting to relive the moment again. Seriously, Espio could hear Charmy crying for five minutes after the call ended.

“Interesting...” Shadow added. He turned to the bright blonde and asked him, “Silver, are you doing anything tomorrow that doesn't involve GUN?”

“No. Why are you asking me this anyway?” Silver wondered as he got his phone back from Charmy.

“I want you to do a favor for me. And trust me, you won't regret it.”

* * *

 

_**Wave: Did Storm ask you where I am?** _

_**Jet: Yes, and I just told him you were seeing the premiere of Venomous Lovers with your parents.** _

_**Wave: Isn't that the movie that makes fun of the 50 Shades series?** _

_**Jet: That's the one. What, you want to watch it with me before you leave for Paris?** _

_**Wave: Depends. Anyway, tell me how the party goes.** _

_**Jet: Promise. Might get you some-** _

 

Jet didn't manage to finish his message to Wave as one seven-year-old ended up hitting his arm, almost causing Jet drop his phone. Gods, Jet's family ended up arriving to the party a bit early just like every party (20 minutes early to be exact) and has to face the younger party guest (AKA: elementary school aged) running around, screaming like there's no tomorrow. A birthday party to anyone means fun, especially if they are kids and it's someone they really know.

In this case, it's the birthday of one of Blake's co-workers: Allan Russo. More specifically, Allan's only daughter, Mary, is turning ten today, and Allan invited his co-workers who have children, alongside his close friends outside of work. Though Jet and Bean are WAY far from the age group since they are older than eleven years old.

While Jet is finishing up his message to Wave, he witnessed both Bean and Storm playing with a bunch of ten year old boys, holding a Nerf gun in their hands. Of course, those two would be willing to play with elementary school kids and screaming like crazy despite getting some glares at the employees who are still decorating the party room they're in.

 

_**Jet: -of those** _ _**rubber bracelets or a small plushie if you like.** _ _**(Sorry for the delay.)** _

_**Wave: As long as you don't give me those erasers. Got it?** _ _**(It's fine, short-head.)** _

_**Jet: I won't even bother getting that poor excuse of a prize. I swear to the gods.** _

 

Right when Jet put his phone in the pockets of his green jacket (Black and White Plaza has a tendency to get cold at times), Storm tossed him a Nerf gun, barely giving Jet the reaction time to catch it in his hands.

“Dude, seriously?” Jet stared at his dirty blonde friend, wondering why he would do this suddenly.

“Bean betrayed me and now he's-” Storm's sentence was cut when two boys and Bean were laughing loudly as they fired the soft darts onto Storm's head, along with Jet.

Sighing, Jet got off of the chair, picked up the darts from the ground and inserted them into his toy gun. “Even though my aim is questionable at best, let's get them, Storm!”

“Alright!” Storm happily exclaimed as he pulled the trigger to aim at one of the boys.

Screaming that there are two large boys (to the younger ones) wielding the toy guns, they followed Bean who's running out of the party room. Jet and Storm went after them despite their moms (mainly Naylene) warning them not to.

It didn't took the two friends long enough to find Bean and the younger boys out in the entrance/buffet area, shooting at the poor people who were either just walking into the restaurant or just trying to get some food. Or sneak in some dessert pizza on their plates for the kids. At one point, one of the boys was chasing down a little girl carrying a plate with (thankfully) nothing on it, firing the darts at her. The girl's mother ended up getting caught into the situation where the girl ran towards her and pointed to the boy firing the Nerf gun at her.

Well, crap. This isn't looking good as the mother would most likely scold the boy's parents, mainly the mother, and it can potentially lead into an argument nobody wants to hear in public. Especially in a place like this where people are suppose to have fun! Guess Jet has to fix this mess before Bean is pulled into this. Storm would probably just make a fool of himself in front of the mother as he doesn't like being in stressful situations that involves communicating with others.

But before Jet can explain, let alone get to the mother, the other boy fired the dart onto the ground and he ended up tripping on it, causing him to fall backwards.

 _This is going to suck,_ Jet thought as he's expected to feel the hard tile floor hitting his head.

Fortunately for Jet, it didn't happen as he felt someone grabbing his hand at the last minute, pulling him up back up. It took Jet a few seconds to recognize the person that saved him since he knows that red hair from somewhere, only shorter than he last remembered.

“Holy crap. I almost didn't recognize you, Xander,” Jet can only say to the few boys he personally knows that's shorter than him.

“That's what you say to me after we haven't seen each other in a month? Gods, Jet,” Xander replied to Jet, eying on the Nerf gun. “Um… Why are you holding a...”

“It's a long story that might get me in trouble...” Jet hid the plastic gun behind his back.

“Hey, you!” the mother of the little girl pointed to Xander.

 _Oh, gods…_ Jet groaned in his thoughts.

 _What's going on?_ Sonic asked Jet, tossing one of his golden bracelets up and down while staring at Jet's friend.

_You travel a lot and got some news, right?_

_Of course! A hero has to stay updated even if they're dead, or a spirit in my case,_ Sonic said. _Does it have to do with him?_ Sonic pointed to the red head, currently facing a vocal lashing at the mother.

_Yes. Tell me, have you heard of someone named Laurence Fortier?_

_That guy who was unfairly judged and sent to prison because he's black? Is that right?_ Sonic gave Jet the info he has known about the case. Even after hopping from different countries, Sonic would always hear this case at least once when he overheard someone discussing civil rights; mainly about how some races (especially African-Americans) are still being treated unfairly.

 _Bingo. And Xander is the son, or rather… You can take a good look for yourself…_ Jet said as he overheard the conversation, or rather, the verbal slaps Xander is forced to hear.

“… They just had the guts to send your psycho family into our city of all places!” the mother yelled to the slightly golden skin teen. “And I don't even understand why a white person would be...”

“Son of a bitch, she's going to say it,” Jet groaned as he knew this would happen.

“What should we do?” Storm asked, dropping the plastic gun to the floor, not caring if a random boy grabbed it and yelled 'Score!' while running to the arcade section.

 _Simple. Go and defend your friend, Jet!_ Sonic encouraged the Filipino by shoving his back hard, almost causing the sixteen year old to crash towards Xander.

 _Sonic, you do realize what you've done,_ Jet pointed out to the blue-haired spirit, knowing that someone in here will scream 'ghost' since no one can see Sonic pushing Jet. Fortunately, nobody noticed it, especially Storm since he was next to him.

_Forget about me. Just help your friend._

Xander turned his head a bit and asked, “Jet, you okay?”

“Yep. Some jerk just shoved me,” Jet replied with a half-lie, pointing to a middle school boy running with a plate filled with nothing but french fries.

“AHEM!” the woman cleared her throat loudly to get the teen's attention. “Excuse me, young man. I was having a conversation with this boy who happens to be the son of-”

“A man that was falsely accused ten years ago due to racial issues,” Jet cut in the mother's sentence as he grabbed Xander's hand. “Xander had to face ten years of being separated from his real family and being ridiculed by others, so give him and his family a break! Is that too much to ask, ma'am?”

Lost in words on what the Filipino told her, the mother cleared her throat softly before replying to the two, “Oh, forgive me. I didn't mean to.”

“It's fine...” Xander said to the mother.

“Good. But about those boys who decided to attack my daughter with… with… soft darts...” the mother wondered about the boys fate.

Jet didn't need to answer the mother as the two boys, who were actually related, ended up being dragged by their parents, scolding them on not to run with a plastic toy and harming others; even though it's just a toy. Well, that's one answer everyone figured out today.

With that mess cleared out of the way, Jet and Xander made their way back to the party room, not even caring if some other boy stole the Nerf gun. Besides, what's a sixteen-year-old like Jet going to do with a toy gun that just sticks to floors and specific targets designed for Nerf guns anyway?

“Surprise to see me here?” Xander asked Jet.

“A little bit,” Jet can only say as they finally entered the party room just in time for every guest to be here.

Jet remembered that when Xander received the invitation a month in advance, the red replied he might go, though he might not be able due to wanting to spend time with his father and younger sister. If Jet can remember correctly, Xander's sister's name was Mirabell, and was sent to a very wealthy, but very… unfortunate family. Xander, on the other hand, ended up with the better deal by being sent to Jet's uncle, Chayton Hawkins, where Xander usually e-mails Jet on stuff as they use to live in different cities (Xander in Spring Valley while Jet in Metal City) and visit a few times per month, but due to Xander's luck, he ended moving to Metal City. And since then, Xander spends time with his father to make up for the time they have lost all these years.

Though Jet can guess that Xander probably asked his father if he can go to the Black and White Plaza today since he's 'technically' part of the Hawkins, and part of the small (maybe large) Filipino family he's associated with.

“Your sister didn't come with you?” Jet wondered as he didn't see a girl with Xander.

“Mirabell said that she's, and I quote, 'busy with shit you don't need to know',” Xander answered as he used air quotes.

“With what?”

“I honestly don't know. Mira,” Xander started, using the nickname for his sister, “hasn't been herself ever since the incident ten years ago.”

“Considering the situation you two have been, it's obvious that you'll change in some ways and do something that might scare the crap out of anyone.”

“But Mira is just...” Xander sighed deeply as he heard Mary's father clapping his hands, signaling his daughter's birthday to start. “You know what, I shouldn't discuss it here. I mean, we're in a birthday party.”

“And the last thing you want to be in a birthday party is being a grinch.”

“I thought being a grinch is at Christmas.”

“Not always. Come on, man! Let's enjoy this party while we can, and maybe you can get your sister and father a nice prize for them!”

“Like a smiley face eraser? Heck, I can give you one as well,” Xander suggested, knowing that Jet doesn't like those cheap prizes they can get at an office supply store.

“Don't you dare!” Jet replied as he took a seat next to his family.

As he sat next to his father, Jet noticed Sonic going out of the party room, looking both ways as if he knows that someone in the restaurant is watching him.

 _Sonic, what's with you?_ Jet asked Sonic, his eyes still on Mary, twirling her black strands on her ring finger.

 _I feel something strange in here,_ Sonic can only say without making it difficult for Jet to understand. _It's not energy from another Chaos Emerald, but…_

_Someone has traces of_ _energy from the Chaos Emerald_ _?_

_Possibly. I'll check it out while you have fun. And don't give me an eraser for gods' sake, 'kay?_

_Why the hell would I?_ Jet answered to Sonic as the blue haired hero dashed out of the party room to find the weird energy source from the restaurant. It could be anyone in this restaurant, but due to the fact that it's crowded at this time, finding it might be a bit difficult. The only way Sonic would know if someone in here saw him.

And he prayed to the gods that it was someone good, not evil…

* * *

 

~Meanwhile~

 

Charmy took a huge bite of the large slice of the pizza while laughing at the old time cartoon on the big screen. Silver and Espio, meanwhile, hasn't touched their food on their plate, too busy looking out for someone. More specifically, the legendary hero from 200 years ago: Sonic.

Shadow requested to Silver that he should track down Jet as he not only has one of the seven Chaos Emerald, but also Sonic. Silver was suppose to go alone, but Charmy and Espio, mainly the former, insisted that they should go with him as six eyes are better than two when searching for the legendary hero. Though Silver kind of sees this as an excuse for Charmy to gorge himself with pizza and ice cream. Still, he's grateful that Espio is with him due to the fact that Silver doesn't know this restaurant very well.

But it's been thirty minutes since they've entered the Black and White Plaza and no sign of the legendary hero. Seriously, how hard is it to find someone with blue hair! Besides, Shadow informed the three agents, mainly Silver and Espio as Charmy was too ecstatic on going to his favorite pizza place, that they should be able to see Sonic as they have some energy from Shadow's Chaos Emerald.

Silver's thoughts were interrupted when Charmy slammed his hand on the table, saying, “Why aren't you eating?! You have to or you might not have the energy to catch the legendary hero! You too, Espio!”

“Sorry, Charmy,” Silver apologized to the young agent, taking a small bite from his Hawaiian pizza, which is the worst according to Charmy, but Silver doesn't care.

“Right,” Espio said, eating his salad while pulling out “Legends from Old Times” from his backpack and turning to the page about Sonic. “This hero is known for his superior speed, easily breaking the sound barrier.”

“Ooh, that sounds awesome!” Charmy exclaimed, his feet on the chair.

“Sit down or you'll fall,” Espio advised the young agent.

“Fine...” Charmy groaned, slumping down to his seat. “What else about him besides the fact that he has a cool hair color and super speed?!”

“Well...”

As Espio is explaining to Charmy about the legendary hero according to the book, Silver's eyes trailed to a figure running through the buffet area and towards the arcade section. For some reason, this figure matched the description that Shadow told the three earlier: blue spiky hair, wearing a blue vest with the back saying “Up & Down & All Around”, and bright red sneakers with a yellow buckle on both shoes.

 _Holy crap!_ Silver exclaimed in his thoughts as he quickly got up from his seat and dashed out of the dining area that the three GUN agents were in, heading towards the arcade.   
Unfortunately for Silver, the arcade section was crowded with kids and teenagers younger than Silver running around with prizes and food (despite the rules stating no food from the dining area), and that it was booming with loud music from both the various games and the music he heard from the dining area before. Finding Sonic in this type of environment might be tougher that Silver had initially thought, but this isn't going to stop the blond from getting the legendary hero. And one he does, the next step is finding Jet. Why?

_“_ _Apparently, Angelo has a Chaos Emerald according to the radar. I want you to confirm it by following him tomorrow. If he does, then there's a good chance that he might be with the legendary hero: Sonic. Find him as fast as you can.”_

Silver sighed at what Shadow told him last night. He didn't know that the boy he met yesterday had a Chaos Emerald, along with Sonic! Silver was too busy with returning the stolen belongings to the police to even check yesterday! Well, never mind about that.

After passing by a few people in the whack-a-mole game, along with a karaoke game that awards people with points based on how well they sing, Silver spotted a figure with blue hair, just standing there and looking at different directions as if he's searching for something important. Perfect! Right there for Silver to get Sonic. This is almost too easy!

But Silver's luck ran out when he accidentally tripped on someone's shoe, almost toppling Silver to the floor, but managed to save himself by grabbing onto a side of a shooter game. The noise coming from the game machine was enough to make Sonic turn around to see who it was and spotted the blond agent, eyes wide in awe.

“I found you!” Silver pointed to the blue haired hero.

“Huh? Oh, gods...” Sonic can easily concluded the weird energy he must have sensed earlier was from the blond, or small traces of the Chaos Emerald as the blond can see the hero easily. “What do you want from me?”

“Just… Just come with me and I promise you I won't do anything dangerous to you or Angelo,” Silver ordered Sonic, slowly coming towards him.

Hearing Jet's name, Sonic glared at the blond's silver eyes before stating, “Yeah right.”

“Huh? But-”

“Better catch me if you can!” Sonic challenged Silver as he sprinted away from the blond at an incredible pace.

Shocked that the legendary hero got away from him, Silver sighed deeply before he ran as fast as he can in order to get to Sonic. Only question is… Does he have enough stamina to catch the heroic speedster? He better pray to the gods that he does…

* * *

 

~30 minutes later~

 

After getting the chance to eat, along with singing happy birthday to Mary, Jet is playing a first-person shooter with both Storm and Xander. Unfortunately for Jet, his score is very low compared to the other two as he keeps missing the target (in this case: zombies) head several times. The gun controllers work great, but apparently it won't cooperate with Jet as the zombies on the screen are coming closer to the three!

“Ahh! Shoot them down!” Storm screamed, spamming the trigger at a rapid pace.

“I am! If only I can… No, stay away from me you freaks!” Jet yelled at the screen, as his character's life bar is slowly draining. “Come on, come on! Die!”

“Time is almost up,” Xander said, looking at the clock on the game screen that reads ten seconds.

“I think we can-” Jet's sentence was cut off when his character's health bar was empty when the timer reached zero. Of course Jet would be the one to cause a game over for everyone in a first person shooter! “Damn it!”

“At least you got points on your card,” Storm pointed out to Jet, pulling out the latter's black and white game card out of the card slot.

“I guess so. I'm glad I didn't have to do this alone or I'd get two… No… one point on my card. And those points won't do good for selecting any prizes, let alone a crappy eraser,” Jet said as he retrieved his game card back from Storm.

Earlier, Jet had used up three dollars out of the six that the employees gave to most of the guests at the party room, though Blake added ten more for him to play more games. And most of the games in the arcade are either 25 to 50 cents when inserted in the card slot in each game machine. For the most part, Jet played a whack-a-mole game with Storm twice, attempted to get a jackpot on the ticket roulette four times but failed (came close by getting 80 points instead of 300). And just recently, the shooter game that cost $1 to play per three players (if desired). Since Jet started the game, the sixteen points went to his card instead of Storm's or Xander's.

Looking for what game to play next, Jet was about to go to the crane game with candy (since it's the easiest one), but before he can, Jet spotted Sonic running past by him, leaving a trail of blue streaks behind him. Of course, Jet can only see the blue-haired hero, but he wonders if Sonic accidentally shoved some people or felt a large gust blowing that obviously didn't came from the air conditioner.

 _Is he still searching for that weird energy source?_ Jet wondered as he inserted his card to the candy crane game.

 _I actually found it! And that source came from a boy close to your age!_ Sonic replied in Jet's thoughts as he came up behind the black-hair teen.

 _What?!_ Jet can only wonder if Sonic was talking about Xander, Storm, or some other high school kids that were here. _What did he look like?_

_He had light blond hair, silver eyes, wearing a teal t-shirt with white stars, and might be taller than you…_

_I didn't have to hear the last part,_ Jet responded to Sonic as the crane dropped two pieces of mini-sized chocolate bars. Seriously, most of the male that Jet meets are usually either his size or taller than him! _Is he chasing-_

 _Yes! And damn, does he have some endurance to keep up with me!_ Sonic complimented on the boy that was chasing him for a full half hour.

_So, how are you going to make him stop?_

_No clue. Do you have any ideas?_

Jet didn't have to think twice when he looked at the laser maze game that almost everyone in the party has played at least once or twice. It's pretty big inside and usually allows one or two players in there for achieving the fastest time while avoiding the lasers touching the player.

 _Follow me!_ Jet told Sonic as he grabbed the two chocolate bars from the prize dispenser and into his pocket in his green jacket before running towards the laser maze game, inserted his card onto the card slot before selecting the options (Difficulty: Normal, 2-Player) on the digital screen.

 _You think it'll work?_ Sonic asked Jet before he spotted the blond running towards them. _Guess that answers my question._

“Hey! You're not getting away from me that easily!” Silver shouted to both Sonic and Jet as the two entered the inside of the maze.

“Crap! Better get moving!” Jet commented to himself as he navigated quickly across the room while avoiding the green lasers hitting his body. Hey, he wanted to get some points out of this game!

As Jet is getting towards the end of the maze, he spotted the blond entering the maze, avoiding the lasers very easily and fast as if he played this game several times. Or rather experienced in beyond the game. Jet wasn't too sure, but he shouldn't think about it at a time like this since the blond is getting closer to him, hands at reach for his necklace. The blond eventually made it to the end, rushing towards Jet's chest.

In the nick of time, Jet ducked to avoid the blow, and the blond ended up hitting the button to end the game for the two. While Jet is happy that he got a lot of points (50 to be exact), he wasn't going to let the blond escape and potentially catch Sonic. With the boy in shock that he missed, Jet grabbed the boy's wrists, turning him around to face Jet, pinning him against the walls.

“Who are you and why are you after Sonic?” Jet demanded, clenching the boy's arms tighter.

“I'm S-” Silver almost blurted out his nickname in front of the black-hair teen. If he said it to Jet, then there would be numerous questions that Jet would fire at Silver, mainly about his actions today! So instead of using his nickname, he replied to Jet, “Venice. I'm Venice Faust.”

“Alright, Venice, but you still haven't answered one of my questions. Why were you after Sonic?! Tell me now or else!”

“Uh… I… I'd rather not...”

“Jet, I think it would be better if you would release him,” Sonic replied. “Maybe then, he'll answer.”

Jet sighed deeply before he released Silver from his grasp. “I guess you're right, Sonic. Let's get out of here.”

Silver sighed in relief that he doesn't have to experience pain from his wrists anymore. He didn't know that Jet would be that strong.

Right when the two exited out of the laser maze and Jet grabbing his card, they were greeted by Naylene, who's holding hands with Mary. Naylene often looks after Mary whenever her father is out on the weekends or at nights, so Mary is comfortable with Jet's mother and looks up to her. Heck, Mary often calls Naylene her mother instead of 'Mrs. Hawkins' like most kids (or Auntie Naylene), and Naylene just goes with it.

Before Jet can say anything, Naylene lets go of Mary's hand to hug her son tightly and saying, “Hi, _anak!_ How are you doing?”

“F-fine, _inay…_ Oh, my gods, mom! Need air...” Jet requested as Naylene complied with him. “What you doing here?”

“Nothing much. I'm just supervising the birthday girl while she's playing some games.”

“Because _tatay_ doesn't want to be with me,” Mary added onto the conversation, pouting and looking down on the floor.

“Oh, Mary. Don't say that. I'm sure Allan wants to play games with you. He's just… Uh…”

“I know… He's too 'busy' talking to Uncle Blake,” Mary said, putting air quotes around busy. “It happens every year on my birthday!”

As Naylene is trying to come up with a response, she noticed Silver, a complete stranger to her, standing next to her son. Curious, she asked, “Oh, and who might you be, young man?”

“Uh… Venice Faust. I'm not in the party, but I just came here with some of my… uh… friends...” Silver managed to answer to Jet's mother without revealing too important details.

“Well, it's nice to meet you! I'm Angelo's mother, Naylene. Are you new here? Was my _anak_ nice to you when you met him?”

“I… Uh… Well...”

 _Oh, gods! Why_ _me_ _?! And what does anak mean anyway?!_ Silver groaned in his thoughts.

“Oh, gods. Am I making you-”

“Yes, ma'am!” Silver quickly replied.

“Well then, I'm sorry for that, Venice.” Naylene turned her attention to her son and asked, “ _Anak,_ can you do me a favor and watch over Mary for a little while? She made me run around the arcade like crazy, and I need to drink some water.”

“I guess so. If things go wrong, I can just give her my candy,” Jet said as he pulled out two chocolate bars from his pockets.

“Why candy?” Naylene wondered.

“Because kids would do anything for candy. And Vennie can help me too!”

“WHAT?!” Silver exclaimed in shock on not only watching a little girl he doesn't know, but what Jet called him. He has never heard anyone call him 'Vennie' in his entire life! “Why me?!”

“You know why...” Jet muttered to Silver, referring to the incident a few minutes ago.

Seeing that Jet might possibly blackmail the blond into telling his mom about Silver attacking Jet at the laser maze, Silver sighed before attempting to grab Mary's hand and saying, “Alright. It's only for a few minutes, so-”

However, Mary slapped Silver's hands hard, it turned red and held onto Naylene's waist, screaming, “ _HINDI!_ **I want to be with my mommy! She's mine! MINE!** ”

“Huh? But sweetie, I'm already married and have a family of my own,” Naylene attempted to reason with the ten-year-old.

“Then leave them! _Kuya_ Jet and Bean already has a _tatay_ that loves them!”

“It's not that simple… Blake is a loving father to my boys, but they need me too. I can't possibly-”

“I don't care! I want my daddy to marry you! I don't want you to be _Kuya_ Jet's mommy! I want you to live with me and daddy, and we can be the happiest family in the whole world!” Mary exclaimed, tears coming from her eyes.

Naylene and Jet didn't know what to say. Sure, Mary has always tried to persuade Naylene to marry her dad plenty of times in the times (to some annoyance to Jet), but whenever Naylene says 'no' to that kind of request, Mary would often say 'okay' and go on with whatever she's doing. But this time, Mary seems adamant on Naylene abandoning her own family for Mary's. Both Jet and Naylene can understand why Mary would say this, and the reason… is something Mary has yet to figure out.

“Mary,” Naylene started, holding the birthday girl closer. “I can't...”

“But I want you to be my mommy! **You love me more than my real mommy...** ” Mary sobbed, her face on Naylene's orange sundress.

“I know. But like I said, I can't be your mommy. You've got to understand that. Just like how your mommy left this wor-” Naylene soon cut off her sentence once she realized the damage she has done to her. Sure, she hasn't said 'that' word, but Mary should be able to piece together the sentence.

Mary slowly let herself go of Naylene's arms before saying, “My real mommy is… gone from the world?” The birthday girl looked at Jet to see if his mom was lying to her.

Jet didn't know what to say to someone who figured out their mother died. Hell, Mary's mother died only after seeing her once!

“We're sorry...” Jet can sadly reply to Mary in the most polite way.

“Then… Then… You have to marry my daddy!” Mary exclaimed, grabbing Naylene's hands. “Please! I don't want to live my life without a mommy! I want to have a full family for once! Please, do it for me!”

“Mary, for the last time,” Naylene started, her tone getting strict, yet understanding at the same time, “No. What you're asking me to do is selfish!”

“Why?!”

“Didn't you remember what I said to you?! I'll not only leave my husband, but I'll leave my two sons behind as well! I can't give them up!” Naylene exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around Jet. “So, I'm sorry, Mary. I'll always be a mother figure for you, but I can't be your mom-”

“NO FAIR!” Mary cried, running away from the three.

“Mary, get back here!” Jet called out once his mom released him. Unfortunately for Jet, Mary is nowhere to be seen in his sight. “Well, that's just great. Vennie and I will look for Mary while you go ahead and rest, mom.”

“After what just happened, I really do,” Naylene agreed with Jet's plan as the two teens were already running through the game room to find Mary.

In a place like this, who knows what might happen to the birthday girl. Jet hopes nothing bad happens to Mary, despite wanting to take his mother away from him.

* * *

 

Shoes off and secluded in one of the corners in the indoor playground, Mary had her knees on her face, sobbing at what just happened. First, her dad hardly payed any attention to her and talked to only his co-workers for the majority of the party. Then Naylene didn't want to become her mother due to her having a family. And finally, she learned that her mother had died a long time ago! Why her dad didn't mention this to her, she has no clue and doesn't even care.

Either way, this is the worst birthday ever! No, scratch that! Mary's birthday is now officially her worst day ever!

“It's not fair! Everyone else that I know has a mommy that loves them, and I don't even know how my mommy looks like!” Mary cried, remembering that her father didn't even show one photo of her mother to her. “I wish I had a mom like _Kuya_ Jet!”

“I can make that happen.”

Wondering who said that, Mary lifted her head up, turning around in different directions until she spotted a dark-skinned girl with long dirty blond hair with the tips being light blond on her left, obviously too big for the indoor playground, but that didn't prevent her from wearing a smile on her face.

“W… Who are you?”

“I'm Micaiah, but you can call me Micky if you like,” the girl introduced herself to Mary as she snapped her fingers, making a heart shaped necklace with a ruby appear in her hands.

“What's that?” Mary pointed to the necklace, now glowing brightly.

“It's a special kind of necklace. Once you wear it, you'll be given a wish.”

Mary's eyes widen when she heard that. A wish?! She couldn't help but smile to the stranger.

“Really?” Mary asked, hoping this isn't a prank.

“I promise. You can wish for whatever your little heart desires. Money, all the pretty clothes you want, a mansion, toys. You get the idea,” Micaiah reassured Mary.

“So I can wish for a mom?” Mary suggested.

“Why would you want one mom when you can have a bunch of them?”

“Then… Then I'll be loved by one… No… All of them forever...”

Oh, Mary can imagine it. Even if one mother dies or somehow escape from Mary, then she won't feel sad anymore if there are a hundred or a thousand of mothers surrounding her.

Her mind set, she asked Micaiah, “Can I please have the necklace?”

“Since you said please, alright,” Micaiah happily answered as she put on the necklace on the little girl. “And one more thing, you can wish as many times as you want. Go wild.”

“Gladly, Micky,” Mary said as she clenched to the necklace, what was once glowing brightly with white light now replaced with a dark aura slowly surrounding the ten-year-old girl. Mary didn't even noticed the aura wrapping around her body before it engulfed her entirely.

Micaiah, meanwhile, is smiling at what is happening to Mary. What was once an innocent girl wearing a white dress transformed Mary wearing a dark purple dress with short puffy sleeves, gray gloves that reaches her hands, and her black hair put into a bun with one strand loose. On her hand, she has a wand that resembles the necklace she's wearing, and with one wave of it, out came a small ball of fire, destroying parts of the slide she was on.

Mary used her wand to descend down to the floor, where she noticed that some people were looking at her, wondering what might have caused the indoor playground to explode. She looked at a few mothers, holding their kids tightly to protect them from Mary.

“All the moms, come to me!” Mary yelled as her wand glowed bright pink, summoning a couple of pink bubbles before launching towards the crowd and trapping the mothers.

“Honey!” one father screamed as he attempted to punch the bubble, only for him to be sent flying to an arcade machine.

People who were passing by noticed the pink bubbles and the mothers who were banging inside them started to run and scream, fearing that they'll be captured or hurt by them. Seeing a couple of mothers among the crowd fleeing from the arcade section, Mary raised her wand higher, summoning hundreds, maybe even thousands, of pink bubbles to fire across and capture the mothers. And if anyone else tried to intervene, it won't be pretty.

Micaiah is hiding behind a large crane game machine, laughing to herself at what chaos this ten-year-old is causing in this restaurant. She thought that she couldn't find someone miserable enough to cause mayhem, but apparently, today is her lucky day.

“Yes, Mary. More! More! Make more chaos, make as much destruction as you can! It'll be all worth it,” Micaiah said to herself, looking at her staff that's glowing purple.

* * *

 

~Meanwhile~

 

Witnessing people running out of the arcade, Jet and Silver stopped their search for Mary when they noticed the numerous of bubbles following the crowd and trapping several women inside of them. Whenever a women got trapped inside the pink bubbles, someone would scream out 'mommy' and tried to free them, but ended up getting launched far away, often hitting a hard object like an arcade machine or a table.

Jet saw some pink bubbles exiting out of the arcade section and into the dining area, trapping more mothers inside and flying away from bystanders, attempting to free them despite the risk of getting injured. This sight alone can make Jet think...

“Shit! My mom!” Jet cursed, hurrying out of the arcade and to the party room where his mom is.

As Jet is making his way to the party room, Silver and Sonic followed him, with the latter saying, “Jet, I feel some bad energy here. To be more specific, dark energy! And yes, it does involve with the bubbles trapping the mothers.”

“But why would the bubbles go after the mothers and not everyone else?” Silver proposed a question to the two.

Jet can give a clear answer to Silver since he knows who could have possibly done it. However, he didn't answer as a pink bubble quickly passed by the three, with the figure inside it banging endlessly and screaming, “HELP ME, ANAK!”

“MOM!”

Jet wanted to break his mom out of the prison bubble, but he didn't want to risk himself from getting injured! He experienced head trauma that almost killed him two years ago, and he wouldn't want to experience that again! As much as Jet wanted to free his mom, he's forced to watch his mom, along with others, to vanish out of the restaurant, and trapping everyone inside by locking all the doors that allowed them to leave.

One officer who was on duty attempted to fire the gun until one of the employees warned him that all the doors, along with the windows, are bullet proof. Firing it would result an unnecessary death to an innocent person.

“Damn it… GODS, DAMN IT!” Jet angrily yelled, kicking a nearby chair towards a table filled with cups and plates.

He'll find a way to rescue all the moms. Even if it might put his life at risk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter: Gotta Go Fast!


	4. Gotta Go Fast

After about trying on about six (or seven, she lost count at this point) dresses that her mother suggested, Wave sighed deeply as she looked at the small display screen on the wall, displaying the various of dresses that match up the specific details she put on a few minutes ago. In particular, a dress for a tall teenage girl that's attend a wedding. Wave wondered why she could have just worn some of her old dresses (mainly the one she wore to the last Homecoming dance) to the wedding since all of them are in good condition, but her mother insisted on getting a new dress.

Mainly because the theme of the wedding they're going is “a day with a million stars”, everything bright and sparkling throughout the wedding, including the guests in some form. The men have it a bit harder since it does limit to certain jewelry and clothes to a certain extent, while the women have a lot easier with the many options.

So in short, none of Wave's old dresses have a lot of glitter or sparkle in them. As much as she isn't a big fan of excessive glitter in her dress, she might as well find one that suits her, along with having a modest amount of, as her mother put it so lightly, 'shining stars' (AKA glitter) on the dress. And while the dresses she worn did fit the criteria, they were either too tight, too gaudy, very revealing, or her mother didn't like it despite Wave thinking it looked nice on her.

 _Dress shopping is a pain in the ass…_ Wave thought as she went through the next dress from the display screen.

Just as she was about to select the lavender (or was it pink?) dress with jeweled embroidery on both the neckline and the waistline, her mother, Lucia, knocked on the dressing room door and asking, “Winona, can I come in?”

“In a minute, mom! I'm about to try on another dress,” Wave replied as she selected the dress on the screen.

Right when she was about to open the door to show her mom how she looked in that dress, Wave spotted a large pink bubble engulfing her mother inside, with Lucia banging her fists on the inside, screaming, “Travis, Winona, HELP ME!”

“What in the hell?!” Wave can only say as she hurried back into the dressing room and quickly scrolled onto the display screen to get into her regular attire. Hey, she wasn't going to go after her mom in a dress, even if she is wearing red sneakers.

After getting back to her regular attire, Wave rushed after her mom from the dressing room to the entrance, where she witnessed that there were more pink bubbles with women inside of them. And based from the little kids around her screaming and crying, it's a safe bet that the women in these bubbles were mothers!

“Wave!” her father, Travis, called for his daughter, finally caught up before hugging the brunette. “Are you alright?!”

“Yeah, but mom...” Wave pointed as the bubbles slowly started to vanish from the store, one by one.

“I'll get her no problem!” Travis replied in confidence as he jumped towards Lucia's bubble with a pen, but instead of his wife being released like he expected, he was thrown back against the jewelry display case, his head hitting the glass, but thankfully, the glass didn't break.

“DAD!” Wave called as she ran to Travis, hoping that his head isn't bleeding. She checked the back of his head with her hand, praying that her hand doesn't have any red on it, but that's not the case. Thankful that her dad didn't get a deadly head injury, Wave sighed deeply before turning to the entrance, not a single pink bubble to be seen. “No way… I don't believe it...”

“Ugh… Who would do such a thing?”

“I don't know,” Wave said as she helped her dad get up. “But I bet whoever is responsible for this mass kidnapping doesn't want anyone getting in the way.”

“Oh, I hope Naylene and Airanna are alright,” Travis prayed, referring to Jet's and Storm's mother respectively.

Right when her father finished his sentence, Wave heard a text tone from her front pocket and decided to see who's messaging her. If it's the prank caller that's been screwing around with Jet from yesterday, she'll ignore it as she doesn't need an idiot texting her in the middle of a crisis!

Fortunately, it wasn't. However, the messages came from both Jet and Storm.

 

_**Jet: Everyone's moms have been kidnapped by pink bubbles (don't laugh, it's legit), and we're trapped at the restaurant! We're still figuring out how to get out of here and find out to rescue everyone's moms. Hope you and your dad are alright.** _

 

_**Storm: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! SOS! SOS!** _ _**\0_** _ _**O** _ _**\** _

 

So Jet and Storm were experiencing this as well. If that's the case for her two friends at Black and White Plaza, then the whole city must be in a widespread panic. And for very good reasons too due to various of factors running through Wave's (and probably almost everyone in Lacy's) head. To be sure, Wave checked the MCN 6 (Metal City News 6) app on her phone to see if there's any information about the kidnappings of the mothers.

And lo and behold, the first thing Wave sees on her screen is a live broadcast of the events that's happening throughout the city, ranging from highways with wrecked cars to children huddling to their dad or older siblings as they cry out for their mothers. Not too shortly after, a young reporter is in the downtown area where there's police and ambulance sirens heard all over, along with people screaming in terror.

“ _..._ _If you are joining us at this time, all of Metal City is in chaos as huge bubbles are kidnapping mothers, leaving young children terrified and accidents occurring at a staggering rate,_ ” the reporter stated as a car crashed into the light post, close to where the reporter is standing. “ _Oh gods..._ ” he muttered, his microphone shaking as he slowly checked the remains of the car, secretly praying that there weren't any children inside that were injured.

The camera zoomed onto the inside of the wrecked car, seeing that a girl and a boy were thankfully uninjured, but once the two kids spotted the reporter, they immediately embraced him before sobbing into his navy blue polo shirt.

“ _Mommy's gone!_ ” both of the siblings cried to the reporter.

“ _It'll be fine… Someone will rescue your mom, and everyone's as well,_ ” the reporter promised the young siblings as he allowed them to stay at his side, even after they embraced him. “ _For everyone, please stay safe, especially for those who's mother is their only parent._ _And_ _for anyone attempting to rescue the mothers, I wish you good luck and be prepared. This is Simon Reynolds from MCN 6._ _”_

The live-broadcast then switched into the headquarters where the two reporters inside are commenting about the disaster. Wave exited out of the app and looked at the people attempting to break the double doors to the store that leads to the parking lot. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done due to the fact these doors are extremely hard to break, taking over tons of pressure to break it.

Wave just secretly prays to the gods that Jet and Storm can get out of the pizzeria safely and maybe rescue their mothers from whoever is responsible for this disaster.

* * *

 

~Meanwhile at Black and White Plaza~

 

“ARGH!” Storm yelled as he rammed into the double doors for the fourth time, hoping it'll break. Unfortunately, not a single crack was made and all Storm did was make himself dizzy from ramming into the hard doors. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem for him, but the kidnapper made sure these doors stay shut no matter what. Including brute force.

“Storm, _tama na ya_ ,” Jet advised, giving his friend an ice pack… Or at least an attempt of one. Basically, ice in a plastic zipper bag, wrapped in a brown paper towel and taped. Better than nothing.

“But we have to!” Storm exclaimed, placing the cheap ice pack on his forehead. “If we can't break these doors, then the kidnapper will keep everyone's mom forever!”

“I know, but it's no good if we injure ourselves. By the time you break one door, you might be too exhausted to rescue your mom, or worse, fracture maybe one or two bones.”

Storm sighed deeply as he slowly slumped near a wall, still holding the ice pack on his forehead as he watched other people attempted to mirror Storm's actions, only ending with failure when someone screams in pain.

Meanwhile, Jet decided to walk back to the party room since no one is there and took a seat before checking out his phone, noticing that Wave has sent him a message.

 

_**Wave: I'm just glad you and Storm are alright. I don't even care about some dumb prize at this moment. My dad and I are stuck at Lacy's in the Starlight Mall, and everyone is trying to get out with no progress. Hope everyone is okay.** _

 

Looking at the message, Jet sighed deeply before replying back to her.

 

_**Jet: We're all fine, so do not worry about us too much. 'Kay?** _

 

After sending the message, Jet noticed Xander walking in with his phone on his ear, sitting next to Jet as he continued his conversation.

“...Yes, I'm alright, dad,” Xander stated as he scratched the back of his head. “I know I'm trapped inside the pizzeria, but I'm really worried about you and Mira. Are the two of you-” Xander paused as he listened to what his father had to say.

Jet didn't hear what Laurence had to say to Xander, but whatever he said, it's enough for the red-head to drop his phone to the ground. Luckily for the phone, it didn't crack, but the call is still continuing due to the timer going on.

 _“Xander? Xander, can you hear me? Hello?”_ Laurence asked, hoping his son would continue despite the news he had said. _“I know the situation is horrible at this moment, but please, try to stay calm.”_

Xander didn't even bother to pick up the phone or even listen to his father's advice as he scooted closer to Jet before he embraced the black-haired teen, shaking in fear and brown eyes with tears, slowly trailing down to his face.

“Jet, I'm… I'm so scared...” Xander managed to say, his face on Jet's green jacket. “Mira is nowhere to be found, we're trapped here, and even if we managed to get out, there's…”

“There's what, Xander?” Jet wondered what the red-head was going to say.

“Check MCN 6...”

Jet did just that, going to the news app that's automatically installed in each phone purchased in the city. The first thing Jet spotted on the app is a live broadcast that's currently displaying a bunch of human sized animals (such as a duck, bear, rabbit, and a fox) wielding various of weapons such as sword, axe, and even a gun that fires gumballs that forces someone's feet or hands to stick to the nearest object. Honestly, Jet thought this could be a cruel prank made by the studio, but it's not the case as the disclaimer on the top of the screen reads: “ATTENTION: THIS IS NOT A JOKE! WHAT YOU'RE SEEING LIVE ON CAMERA IS REAL!”

As the live broadcast continues, Jet noticed something off about these animals attacking the citizens outside. On the side of their leg, each animal has a white tag on them. And it doesn't take a genius to know that these animals are actually stuffed animals brought to life! Whether they used to be small or life sized is a mystery, but Jet can conclude that whoever brought these stuffed animals to life must also be responsible for the crisis happening in Metal City. No wonder Xander is scared!

While putting his phone away into his pockets in his jacket, Jet pulled out the pen he found yesterday at Astra Park. The only reason he brought this pen in the first place is just in case he has to write something down somewhere. It's a habit that happens when going out to family outings such as a party. Out of all the pens he had to take with him, it had to be the one that fires lasers!

Luckily for Jet, he figured out how the pen works yesterday after Wave left his house. Apparently, the pen had a switch in the middle, though it isn't labeled on what it does. Jet did experiment on it by using a stack of papers (he didn't want to destroy any more of his pillows). When the switch was up, it fires lasers that effortlessly cut the stack of papers in half. Now that he remembers it, the switch was up when Jet first found it in Astra Park. So if that's the case, then putting the switch down reverts it to a normal pen. Seems simple enough.

After staring at his laser pen for a while, Jet simply face palmed himself, thinking to himself that he's an idiot for not using the pen sooner! If this pen can cut a stack of paper (basically 30 pieces of paper when he tested it), then maybe it can cut through the door and windows no problem! Maybe. It didn't meant that it would definitely do the trick! There's a possibility it could fail since the doors and windows can easily reflect bullets, but not to sure about lasers that can easily destroy stuff.

 _Well, better trying than doing nothing,_ Jet thought as he placed both of his hands on Xander's shoulders, hoping the red-head would snap out of his shock state.

“Jet...”Xander managed to say as he looked at one of his hands with a pen. “What are...”

“This might sound crazy, but I have a plan,” Jet told Xander as he let go of Xander's shoulders. “This pen could be the key to get everyone out of here.”

“By writing encouraging messages to everyone?” Xander joked a bit as he didn't know how else a pen in this type of situation would help others.

“Uh… No. Instead of telling you, I think it's best if I show you.” With putting the switch up on the pen, Jet decided to test it on a plastic tray. Clicking the pen, a red laser fired from the tip and easily split the tray in half.

Amazed at what he saw, Xander can only say to Jet, “Holy crap! Where did you get that type of pen?”

“At Astra Park. I don't know who created this pen, but that can wait for another day,” Jet answered to Xander as he picked up the red-head's phone from the checkered floor. “For now, let's get everyone out of here and rescue...” Jet paused for a moment as he was about to say 'mom' in front of Xander after remembering about what happened to Xander's mom. “Sorry, I shouldn't mention that.”

Sighing as he grabbed the phone from Jet, Xander replied, “It's fine. Your mom is family to me, so I'll help you rescue her.”

“Thanks man.”

“But before we go...” Xander looked around the room and found two plastic golf clubs that was used as a party game forty minutes ago, along with four colored golf balls and grabbed them before handing a club and two golf balls to Jet.

Confused at why he's handed these plastic objects that are meant for kids, Jet asked, “Xander, how come-”

“To defend ourselves from those things outside,” Xander answered, referring to the giant stuffed animals from the news. “I know it's not enough, but it's better than nothing.”

“Fair enough. If we find a baseball bat or a metal pole, hand it over to me.”

“Why's that?” Xander asked as they decided to exit the party room with their compromised weapons.

“I just prefer to smack enemies rather than shoot at them,” Jet simply answered.

“Is it because you almost-”

“We never talk about that incident!” Jet cut off as they made their way to the entrance, where they witnessed people are ramming the front door with a long table over and over, hoping to inflict a crack on it. Despite this, the door failed to even crack…

Right when Jet is about to use the pen to fire at the door, he spotted Venice and… hold on a second…

Wondering what Jet is seeing, Sonic asked the Filipino in his thoughts, _What up, Jet? You saw a ghost?_

 _No, but I see my classmate,_ Jet pointed to his dark-brown haired classmate wearing a black sweater. _That's Takeshi with Charlie, or Charmy as some people call him… But…_

_But what, Jet?_

_Why are they with Venice?_ Jet wondered as he saw Espio and Charmy close to the blond teen, a phone in his ear.

_Maybe they're informing their father?_

_Takeshi and Charmy don't exactly have a dad, or a mom…_ Jet informed Sonic as he made his way to the front door, letting Sonic to think what the Filipino meant by that.

Right as the people who were carrying the table about to ram the door, they spotted Jet making his way on the front door, forcing them to drop the table to the floor.

Hearing the noise of the table being dropped, Silver, Espio, and Charmy stopped what they were doing and looked to see Jet with a plastic golf club and a pen in his hands.

“Hey, isn't that Angelo?” Espio pointed out.

“What? You know him?” Silver asked the Japanese agent.

“Yes. He attends my school. And it seems-”

“He has my pen.” Silver concluded the sentence for Espio. “Hey, do you have your laser pen with you?”

Espio checked his pockets in his pants before pulling it out and replying, “I do. Are we going to aid Angelo?”

“Yes we are. Espio, go help Angelo with the doors while Charmy can use his pen to open the windows. Got it?”

“Roger, Silver,” Espio agreed as he rushed to Jet's aid while leaving the young agents alone.

As the Asian agent made his way to the doors, Silver and Charmy went back to the dining area that they were in an hour ago due to the fact that there are two large windows at the side.

“You ready, Charmy?” Silver asked the fourteen-year-old agent.

“I got this!” Charmy exclaimed in confidence, pulling his laser pen from his jacket pocket, clicking it before creating a huge circle on the window.

Meanwhile with Espio, he spotted Jet already firing the laser at one of the doors. Well, it's a good thing that Jet knows how to use it. Otherwise, things would have gone bad for him. But enough about Jet! Espio has to aid him with the doors!

Starting with the doors that are used for the exit due to the large number of people in here, especially on a Friday afternoon. Activating the switch for the lasers to his pen, Espio fired it onto the exit door, making a large circle on it before he rushed to it and kicked the circle, crashing onto the ground outside. Espio looked at Jet to see that he did created a circle from the laser, and is currently proceeding with smashing it with the plastic club, along side with a red-haired teen that's carrying the same plastic club, only in a different color. It took a couple of hits before the glass finally broke.

“Everyone, get out, now!” Xander yelled to the pizzeria as he and Jet went through the broken doors.

Knowing that the doors will be crowded, Espio shouted to the panicked crowd, “There's an exit with the windows!” He hopes some people will know what Espio is talking about.

Fortunately for Espio, a couple of people are making their way to the dining area with the windows since there's a lot of people crowding both doors already. As the people were exiting out of the pizzeria, Espio hurried out of the restaurant as he not only has to protect the citizens from the alive toy army, but the person that he was suppose to find in the first place.

And of all the people, it happened to be his classmate: Jet! While Espio had him in two classes last semester, the two didn't talk to each other that much, only communicating when they were paired up for a project in Chemistry. And whenever they have to meet up outside the classroom, the two had to call or text to each other-

Of course! How did Espio forget?! He still has Jet's number! Once Espio can reunite with Shadow, then maybe he can convince his classmate to meet up with both him and Shadow. It seems a bit too simple for Espio, but it seems to be the most effective plan considering the situation at hand.

For now, Espio his behind a large blue dumpster before activating the GUN issued watch, and pressed the application that has his avatar form. In a matter of seconds, his dark-brown hair turned purple with a few yellow streaks in his bang, light brown eyes to amber, and his normal attire replaced with a black sleeveless tunic, black pants with a purple belt that contains a few kunai, dark purple shoes, and a short purple scarf wrapped on his neck.

Once in his avatar form, Espio pulled out one of his kunai from his belt and started to sprint to the nearest enemy, wielding a bat that's ready to swing at a young teen with his father. For some reason, these two look a bit familiar to Espio...

“Get away from us! Tatay, do something!”

 _That's Angelo's family!_ Espio exclaimed in his thoughts as he tossed the kunai at the 6 foot tall teddy bear's head.

Head slowly looking up, Bean spotted someone (or something, he's not too sure) wearing ninja attire, standing behind him and his dad.

“Ahhh! Another-”

Before Bean can manage to finish his sentence, Espio turned his head to the younger Hawkins brother, and replied, “I'm not the enemy. You can trust me.”

“Oh… Alright, sir...”

“Good,” Espio said as he clapped once, causing a small explosion on the giant teddy bear (thanks to the kunai given to him by GUN). Not too shortly after, the giant bear revert back to it's original state, with the baseball bat clattering to the ground.

As Espio picked up his weapon from the teddy bear, Blake stood up from the ground, picked up the baseball bat (due to his gun and stun gun being left in his house) and said, “Thank you, young man.”

“It's no problem,” Espio answered back, placing his kunai back to his belt.

“Wow, that was awesome!” Bean exclaimed, jumping up and down. “Hey, hey, sir! Can you maybe come with us while my dad and I look for my kuya?”

Knowing what _kuya_ meant and seeing that finding Jet will be easier thanks to his family, Espio replied, “Of course. I wouldn't want to see anyone else being harmed.”

“Alright!”

As Bean grabbed the baseball bat from his father, Espio looked at his phone to see that Charmy and Shadow has sent a couple of messages to him, with the former sending the ninja more.

 

_**Shadow: Find Angelo Hawkins in this chaos, ASAP.** _

 

_**Charmy: There's not only giant stuffed animals but dolls that can easily lift-** _

 

_**Charmy: Trucks! Trucks with furniture!** _

 

_**Charmy: Also, sorry for cutting of on the last message… See ya soon, Espio! ;D** _

 

 _Thank the gods you're fine, Charlie…_ Espio sighed in his thoughts as he placed his phone in his pockets on his pants. Thank the gods that his avatar attire included pockets. He can't just place his phone where his weapons were.

* * *

 

~ Meanwhile~

 

Avoiding the various of stuffed animals wielding guns and swords wasn't an easy task for both Jet and Xander. While they were trying to find Storm in the crowded streets, they were stopped by a life sized doll wearing a slim blue shimmering dress, with one side being slit to show off her legs. Oh gods, it's that princess that's from the widely popular movie two years ago! Now… what was her name again?!

“Oh, come on!” Jet exclaimed impatiently, now having to deal with an overrated princess. “Move!”

“Can't let you do that,” the princess refused, snapping her fingers as an army of snowmen wielding guns appeared in front of her, with snow clouds on top of them. Well, it's still summer and summer in Texas is unbearable, especially in July! “Get them.”

With a simple snap of her fingers, the snowmen charged at the two teens, some of them firing their guns at the two. What came out of the guns wasn't bullets, but instead snowballs coming at them at an incredible pace! Both Jet and Xander managed to dodge them at the last second by ducking down, and the snowballs ending up hitting an empty car, freezing it instantly!

“Well, damn,” Xander managed to say as he looked at the poor truck covered in ice. “We need something to protect us from the snowballs.”

“Already on it!” Jet replied as he found a nearby trash bin cover on the road. “So, how do we deal with the ice queen?”

“Destroy the snowman's clouds. Got it?”

Understanding Xander's short suggestion on the plan, Jet smiled back to the red-head and replied with, “No problem!” as he tightened his grip on his golf club on his right hand and held the trash cover with his left. “Just stay behind me, Xander.”

“Fine by me.” Xander nodded in agreement as the two started to rush forward to the snowmen army, firing the snowballs at them.

 _Want me to help?_ Sonic asked Jet, running next to him at their pace.

 _It'll get the job faster, so go for it, Sonic!_ Jet granted Sonic's request as he spotted the blue-haired hero simply kicking on of the snowman's head before he kicked it again towards several other snowman, their bodies turning into a pile of snow.

Witnessing that some of the snowmen are being destroyed on their own (at least to him), Xander asked Jet, “Is there some sort of spirit that's helping us?”

“You can say that,” Jet answered honestly (technically). “But for now...”

With some of the snowmen caught off guard from parts of their army being destroyed, both Jet and Xander say this as their chance to destroy all of the snow clouds before the ice princess notices them. Hell, the princess is busy freezing the buildings that still have people trapped inside of them! One by one, they're destroying the clouds with their golf clubs, with Sonic assisting them as well, kicking the bodies of the snowmen.

One of the remaining ones attempted to fire one behind Xander, only for Jet to block it and toss a golf ball at the snowman, distracting the alive snowman enough for Sonic to grab it and kick the cloud away so the snowman will melt.

“Alright!” Jet happily exclaimed, seeing that the snowmen army is slowly in decay thanks their work, only for him to quickly yell in horror, “Son of a bitch!” when he turned around to see the ice princess wielding a grappling hook gun, pressed on his head.

“Jet!” Xander said in shock, gripping his golf club tighter as he's ready to hit the princess. Yes, he's well aware that he's about to hit a girl, but technically this is a doll, so it's no problem.

However, as Xander rushed towards the princess, she placed her finger on the trigger and warned the red-head, “If you attack me, your friend will die!”

“Don't listen to her! She's just trying to scare-” Jet tried to convince Xander to continue his actions, only for Jet to be cut off when the princess stomped on Jet's feet to scream in pain. “Gods, damn it! I'll get you for-”

“You do anything stupid, both of you will never see your family again!” the princess added, her finger close to firing at his head.

Both of his fists tightening up, Sonic quickly rushed to where both Jet and the princess were standing, before exclaiming to the latter, “Don't you dare hurt my friend!”

Turning around to see who said that, the princess spotted Sonic and can only say, “Who the heck are you?!”

“Ah, you can see me. Interesting...” Sonic said as he knocked the grappling hook out of the ice princess' hand with his feet, grabbing both the grappling gun and Jet's hand before getting away from her, taking shelter from behind the frozen truck

“Oh, thank the gods, Sonic...” Jet sighed in relief that he's still alive as he's sitting down on the street.

“Didn't want you and your friend to die because of a hard decision.”

“But you mentioned that the princess can see you. I thought people can see you only if they have traces of the Chaos Emerald. Does this mean-”

“Probably,” Sonic can agree with Jet, knowing what he's going to say. As he's thinking about the enemy who brought several toys to live just to scare and harm citizens, he spotted Xander making his way to the frozen truck.

But right when Xander made his way to the truck, both Jet and Sonic witnessed the ice princess lifting an empty bus before tossing it towards them!

“Oh, gods… Run!” Jet simply shouted as he grabbed Xander's hand before running away from the incoming bus that's going to crush them.

However for Xander, he ending up tripping, letting go of Jet's hand.

The Filipino noticed this and was about to turn around to get Xander, only for the red-head to yell, “Just run, Jet! I'll meet you later, I promise!”

Jet was going to disregard Xander's order, but Sonic grabbed his hand and said to him, “Trust him. I'm sure he'll be fine.”

Sighing that he's forced to leave his friend behind, Jet started to run again with Sonic, before turning his head and yelling to Xander, going the opposite direction that he's going, “I'll call you where I am once I'm alright! I promise!”

He assumes Xander heard him as the bus crushed the frozen truck into pieces.

* * *

 

~A few minutes later~

 

… Or what felt like an hour to Jet as he's now resting on the bench. While both Jet and Sonic escaped from the bus that was going to crush them, Jet requested to Sonic that they should go to Astra Park as it's one of the few places Xander can get to on his own without a guide on his phone.

Plus, he's exhausted from both fighting and running away from the various of enemies for a straight hour! His attire isn't helping him either due to him feeling sweaty and sticky from the sweat. He took off his jacket, pulled out his phone from the pockets before he tied it to his waist. Hey, he didn't want his phone to fall off.

As he made his way to the fountain (no not the drinking fountain) to cool himself from the heat, his phone ringed, indicating a phone call. Jet checked to see who's calling him, and it's his father that's attempting to call him. He decided to take the call right as he splashed some water on his free hand.

“Hello?” Jet started the call with his father. “Dad, where are you?!”

 _“I should be asking you that question, Jet,”_ Blake answered.

“I'm at Astra Park. I was with Xander, but we ended up getting separated because an ice princess nearly killed us with a bus.”

_“Why would a cyrokinetic princess need a bus to kill you?”_

“I don't know, but anyway, are you alone or with someone else?”

_“I'm with Bean and a young man who saved us from those… things...”_

“What did he look like?” Jet wondered as he dried his face with the sleeve of his jacket, making his way back to the bench where Sonic is sitting, looking at the plastic golf club.

_“Well, he's wearing ninja attire, has purple hair, kind of an odd looking person, but like I said before, he saved me and your brother.”_

“A ninja saved you, huh? Then I guess once we meet up at Astra Park, then we'll have no problem with rescuing mom!” Jet concluded based on what Blake told him. “So, how long will it take you to get to Astra Park?”

_“We're on foot, so based on our location, about ten minutes.”_

“Okay then. I'll call Xander while I wait for you,” Jet said as he hung up the call, sitting down on the bench.

As Sonic gave the plastic golf club back to Jet, the blue haired hero asked Jet, “Your dad?”

“Yep. He's going to help us, along with my brother and a ninja that saved them.”

“Well, the more the merrier! Right?”

“Oh, gods, Xander!” Jet hurried as he called Xander to inform him about his location and the plan once Jet's dad gets here.

But as Jet is waiting for Xander to pick up, Sonic grabbed Jet's arm and dragged him behind the closest tree that's behind the bench. Sonic then quickly grabbed the plastic golf club, two golf balls, and the grappling hook gun off from the bench before coming back to the tree.

“Sonic, what the hell?!” Jet demanded the logic of Sonic's actions.

“Sorry, but I sense some enemies coming towards us,” Sonic explained. “And with the utensils we've got, they're not going to be enough to hold off for ten minutes. Except for the grappling hook.”

“Well, I can't use a grappling hook gun to knock out my enemies.”

“Which is why...” Sonic started as he grabbed the golf club, snapped his fingers before the golf club glowed in a blue aura, eventually turning the club into a sword with large green feathers surrounding it. Soon enough, Jet's red sneakers and the two golf balls started to glow in the same aura, before his shoes have white wings etched on the side, while the two golf balls were transformed into something resembling a bomb.

Looking at his shoes and the sword that Sonic have crafted (mainly the latter), Jet grabbed the sword before asking him, “What did you do, Sonic?”

“Easy. I have Chaos Energy, so I used it to transform the golf club into a sword and the balls into smoke bombs,” Sonic stated, tossing one of them into the ground, releasing a white puff of smoke surrounding the two. The smoke disappeared when Sonic snapped his fingers, and the smoke reverted back into a small bomb. “Plus, they'll regenerate pretty quickly, so there's no worry that you'll lose them.”

“Alright, but what about my shoes?!” Jet pointed to the new design on his red sneakers.

“That? All I can say is that you're legs won't hurt anymore thanks to them.”

“Fine. Guess this is better than me wielding a gun.”

“Fair enough. And one more thing,” Sonic snapped his fingers once more and out came Jet's Extreme Gear in his hands. He handed the Filipino his board as he said, “You'll need this too.”

“Thanks,” Jet stated as he hopped on the board, activating it by pressing his left foot on the front part of the board. Once his board is slightly off the ground, Jet spotted a large number of dolls in the air, along with the stuffed animals with weapons.

Ready for the upcoming attack, Jet gripped his new sword and Sonic held on tightly to the grappling hook gun, finger on the trigger ready to pull when he sees the closest enemy.

Eventually, the army of toys quickly made their way towards the two. The fairy wearing a strapless green dress came charging at the two with a large hammer to smack at them. Jet and Sonic dodged the incoming attack, with the fairy's hammer landing on the tree, causing it to crash into the ground. With the fairy in shock that her attack missed, Sonic focused his aim on the fairy, pulled the trigger to release the hook.

Unfortunately, the hook hit Jet's shoulder, though thankfully not the sharp parts of the hook had gotten in contact with his skin. Oops. Sonic quickly reload the hook back into the gun before he checked his aim carefully when he pulled the trigger, the hook sticking to the fairy's hammer and pulled the rope so the hammer can come towards him. Once done, he grabbed the hammer and swing it at the fairy that tried to kick him in the face, only for the fairy to get knocked out in the face.

“GET THEM!” the fairy yelled in rage, wiping the blood off her face.

The stuffed animals and fairies screamed as they charged towards Jet and Sonic, weapons ready to destroy them. Before any of the toys can have a shot at destroying them, Jet threw the two smoke bombs at the ground, forcing all of the toys to stop as they are being blinded by the white smoke. While the toys are distracted, Jet boosted on his gear to enter the smoke and swung his sword at as many toys while he's passing through the smoke.

Meanwhile, Sonic is taking down the fairies one by one by tossing the hammer at them, forcing them to fall to the ground, and kicking their weapons out of their hands before slamming them towards a tree. Only one fairy manage to give Sonic, as he calls it, a challenge for dodging all of his swings, and blocking the hits with her hammer. Not too bad.

Too bad for her, Sonic fired the grappling hook before he surrounded the fairy very quickly, tying her up with the ropes from the hook. He then unraveled her very quickly by pulling on the rope with one quick pull, forcing the fairy to spin around multiple times and making her dizzy to fall face down to the grass.

With Jet, he's disarming the toy's weapons with his sword before the smoke clears up. During the time that the smoke was up, Jet managed to take down at least one fourth of the army! On the bright side, only three fourths didn't have a weapon, so that evens things out. Sort of… Jet was about to charge at the toys, only for him to be forced off his Extreme Gear when one of the stuffed bears picked him up and tossed him high into the air!

“GODS, THIS ISN'T FUN!” Jet yelled as he's about to get back down to the ground. And oh gods, this is going to send Jet to the hospital once he lands!

However, Jet didn't feel any major pain on his legs once he's back on the ground. Just like Sonic mentioned earlier, the shoes helped him with the impact a lot! Man, he's so keeping these shoes on!

The toys were surprised that Jet lived through that, so much that they stood completely still.

“Perfect,” Jet muttered as he rushed towards the stuffed animal army, slicing at the defenseless toys. As Jet was taking down some of the toys, Sonic fired the grappling hook at one of the stuffed animal's arm, with the latter not noticing it at all.

“Jet, get your board!” Sonic commanded the Filipino.

After slicing one toy in half, Jet quickly grabbed his board and hopped on it before boosting to Sonic.

“Now hold the gun and ride in circles!” Sonic exclaimed as he handed the gun to Jet. “No aim required.”

“No problem!” Jet happily replied as he rode around the remaining stuffed animals, going faster and faster every time he completes a circle. After going around the toy army for the seventh time, the grappling hook's maximum length has reached, enough for the army to be tied down and almost at the verge of falling down. Slowing down, Jet dropped the gun to the floor and gripped on his sword before exclaiming, “How well will you die?!”, slicing all of the toys in half with one swoop.

Jet hopped out of his Extreme Gear and was greeted with a hi-five from Sonic for a job well done.

“Alright! That was awesome!” Sonic said, happy that the two were able to take down the toy army at a quick pace.

“Yeah,” Jet agreed. “Now, I better call Xander so I can let him-”

However, Jet's phone ended up being knocked out of his hand by a purple beam that came out of nowhere. Curious as to who done it, Jet looked around the park to find the culprit until he looked up at the sky to see a little girl wearing a purple dress that resembles something a princess from a doll franchise would wear, and a pink bubble containing a woman inside. The two slowly descended to the ground, with the bubble not making any contact to the ground while the little girl slowly walked to Jet, her wand pointed at Jet's face.

“Well, well, well. Look who we have here,” the girl stated to say as Jet stared at the pink bubble. Wait a minute, the orange dress and mid-long black hair…

“MOM!” Jet yelled as he knocked the wand off of the girl's hand and tried to make his way to his mom. He stopped when a beam almost hit his body. “Let go of her!”

“Oh, Jet,” the girl started to explain, “I won't let go of her. I want your _nanay_ , but I figured that I won't be lonely if I have more!”

“Hey, how did you-”

And it hits Jet quickly when he realized that the little girl used the word 'nanay', and knew his name. “M-Mary?! Is that you?!”

“Took you long enough,” Mary replied in a bored manner, twirling her wand around.

“So the bubbles kidnapping the mothers, the toy army all over the city...”

“That was all my doing!”

“All because you wanted a mom?!” Jet stated angrily, his grip on the sword getting tighter, ready to swing at Mary. “I am going to destroy you!”

“But I'm just a kid!”

“ _ **I don't give a fuck about your age!**_ ” Jet angrily cursed, teeth clenching, fists clenching as tight as he can. “What you're doing is wrong!”

“Oh, blah, blah, blah. Why don't you just shut up and let me get my way?” Mary mocked the Filipino, ignoring him.

“No,” Jet answered, the point of his sword pointing at Mary's neck. “Let me get this straight to your immature head, Mary. I understand that you're angry and sad that you didn't have a mother when you were growing up, along with the fact you've recently learned about her death. However,” Jet paused his sentence as he slowly walked closer to Mary, with the birthday girl slowly backing up to avoid getting stabbed at the neck, “This does NOT mean you get to kidnap all the mothers in Metal City, especially my mother, and my friend's as well!”

“And what's wrong with that?” Mary asked, attempting to knock the sword out of Jet's hand, only for him to block it and send Mary's wand to the grass, causing Mary to stop moving.

“Your selfish actions have sent the entire city into turmoil! Do I need to explain any more?!” Jet cried as he lowered his sword away from Mary's neck.

“Hmm… No,” Mary simply said, picking up the wand from the ground. “But tell you what, if you want your _nanay_ so badly, I'll let her go.”

Jet would like to say 'yes', but because of what happened at Black and White Plaza, he knows that there has got to be a catch with Mary's deal.

“On what condition?” Jet wondered, suspicious on what Mary will do.

“I'll let your mom go only if I get to keep the rest of the mothers. Does that seem fair to you?” Mary offered, pointing the wand to Naylene.

“ _Anak_ , don't do it!” Naylene pleaded to her eldest son.

“Don't worry, mom,” Jet replied to his mom before answering to Mary, “There is no way in hell will I ever agree to that!”

“Oh, so you're willing to let every other mom go while I keep yours?”

That's the last straw for Jet. If the two decisions he's been given has a lose-lose situation, then he'll try to get a third decision where he rescues every mom rather than risk a life to a ten-year-old.

“How about none of the above?!” Jet exclaimed as he's rushing towards Mary, ready to swing his sword at her.

However, right he was about to hit her arm, Mary pointed her wand to the ground as she summoned an army of giant teddy bears wielding an axe. The sword instead sliced the arm of one of the teddy bears, dropping the axe.

“Damn it,” Jet muttered underneath his breath. He didn't have a chance to catch up to Mary when he noticed that Mary and Naylene vanished in front of his eyes! “Oh, that brat is going to pay!”

Sonic, kicking the axe out of the teddy bear's hands, yelled to the Filipino, “Never mind about Mary for the moment! For now, we need to get rid of these stuffed bears!”

“You're right.”

As Jet gripped his sword and was about to strike one, a figure wielding a scythe sliced one clean, transforming the teddy bear back to it's normal size. Not too shortly after that, the scythe split into two, transforming them into dual pistols for the figure to use to fire at the bear's heads.

As the figure fired his guns at the toy army, he turned to Jet and asked, “Are you Angelo Hawkins?”

Suspicious that this figures knows his name, Jet pointed his sword at the figure's head, before replying, “How do you know my name?”

“Never mind about that. The name's Shadow Midnight, and we've been looking after you for a long time.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jet wondered, oblivious by the bear ready to swing its axe on him

Fortunately for Jet, Sonic leaped in the air, kicking the weapon out of the bear's hands while roundhouse kicking it in it's chest, forcing the teddy bear to fall. Jet turned to see the once giant bear turning back into a regular teddy bear before he gripped his sword when he spotted a few more stuffed animals coming at his way.

“I'll wonder about that later,” Jet muttered in his breath as he rushed towards the stuffed animal army, along with Sonic.

But before the two can even get a hit on the animal army, a light blue aura surrounded the entire stuffed animal army, forcing them to be lifted off the ground and eventually tossed into the fountain, soaking them wet before transforming back into ordinary teddy bears. Curious as to who did it, Sonic and Jet turned around, and the latter recognize the figure that caused the light blue aura.

“Silver?!” Jet can only say. “What are you...”

“I can say the same thing to you,” he replied. “It took a long time, but we've finally found you.”

“That's the same thing Shadow said to...”

Right when Jet was about to finish his sentence, an explosion happened behind the three, with a few teddy bears flying in the air before transforming back into their normal form. All three of them didn't need to think twice when they noticed that it was Shadow who caused the explosion as he's making his way towards the group, putting the pistols back together into a scythe. The scythe then simply transformed into a bracelet that Shadow simply placed into his right arm.

“Yes. And we've been looking for you because of...” Shadow paused his sentence as he pointed to Jet's necklace, with the Chaos Emerald hanging next to the golden wing.

“The Chaos Emerald,” Jet finished Shadow's sentence. “Then, you…”

“Silver and I can see Sonic thanks to my Emerald,” Shadow explained as he showed Jet his red Chaos Emerald.

“And what do you need the Chaos Emeralds for?” Jet wondered why two strangers would want a Chaos Emerald from a sixteen-year-old.

“We'll explain later once we get to GUN Head-”

When Jet heard the word GUN from Shadow, he cut Shadow's sentence and exclaimed, “You mean the government agency that protects the world from serious threats?!”

“Uh… Yes…?” Silver awkwardly answered to Jet. “Shadow has been there longer than I have.”

“Why are you asking this?” Shadow wondered as he noticed that Jet's brown eyes are wide with excitement and was close to squealing like a little girl.

“Can I have your autograph?!” Jet happily asked Shadow, dropping his sword to the ground.

Shadow groaned heavily in annoyance that of all the people possessing the Chaos Emerald, it had to be this sixteen-year-old...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter: I Just Want Your Autograph


End file.
